There is one type of lawn that must always look pristine. Not a single leaf, twig or pine needle must ever reside out of place on it.
Or people could lose their jobs.
What type of lawn?
Golf courses.
Maintaining your lawn is not so different from golf course maintenance.
What’s Unique About Golf?
Golf is one of the oldest, most popular and prestigious sports in the world. When you take into account prize money, sponsorship, advertising, equipment and club fees, it is a multi-billion dollar industry.
And there’s one thing that sets it apart from most other sports: where it’s played.
You see, with sports such as tennis, football, hockey, or baseball, the size and layout of the area where the game is played is the same – almost down to the last inch.
But each golf course around the world is different.
Different layouts.
Different lengths of hole.
Different landscapes.
Some with more trees and bushes, some with less bunkers, some with lakes, some with streams, different shapes of fairways, greens and roughs. Some amature golf courses don’t even bother with 18 holes and just keep to 9.
They are all different. And yet, how golf courses are maintained is the same the world over.
Even though reportedly over half of golf courses in the world are in North America, different weather conditions and climates present different challenges to the ground staff that are charged with maintaining them.
With dozens of trees surrounding the fairways of a golf course, wind and rain can cause debris to fall on grass all year round.
And in golf, the fairways have to be as clean and clear as the greens (albeit the grass isn’t as short or the surface as undulated). That’s pretty central to the rules of the game.
So it doesn’t matter whether it’s the course at the Augusta National – perhaps the most famous golf club in the world – or your local golf club. The course should be flawless.
The Importance Of Lawn Sweepers
When you think of the hundreds – sometimes thousands – of dollars an annual golf membership can cost, members rightfully expect to play on a flawless surface. And when the big majors come along in professional golf, hundreds of millions of people worldwide will be following the competition on TV, meaning golf courses literally have the eyes of the world on them.
Professional golf course groundsmen are obviously central to how golf courses are maintained, and golf club owners will ensure that they have access to the best equipment in the world.
As we mentioned near the start though, how golf courses are maintained is not so different from maintaining your own lawn.
Golf course grounds staff still use mowers, aerators, blowers, and yes – lawn sweepers.
These machines need to be industry-sized. Golf-versions are not the versions you will find in your local gardening outlet, but essentially they work in the same way. They’re just bigger. More heavy-duty. Golf courses cover several acres of land. And, during major competition time, they need to be maintained on a daily basis.
Same But Different
Take a look at the video below to see the type of lawn sweeper that would be used on a golf course. You can see that the machines are actually a merger of a tractor and a tow-behind sweeper into one unit, for extra power and size.
But in terms of the mechanics of how the machines work, they’re pretty much the same as the lawn sweepers reviewed on this site. They are towed by an engine-powered vehicle. They have heavy duty brushes that lift up leaves and other debris from the surface of the grass. They collect all the debris in a hopper which is used to transport the debris to wherever you want to dispose of it.
Apart from size, there are a few subtle differences to regular lawn sweepers that make these lawn sweepers key for how golf courses are maintained.
The brushes in these machines are made of longer and tougher bristles that will sweep close to the soil, ensuring debris stuck between the blades is also caught. Also, the brush head axel is wide and is able to follow all the different contours of the lawn on a golf course.
The tractors also travel at faster speeds, meaning more of the ground can be covered in less time. A powerful engine will generate these speeds, as well as enabling the machine to deal easily with hills and slopes.
The hoppers tend to be moveable also. Regular lawn sweepers have fixed hoppers, but on these industry-style lawn sweepers, the hopper can be raised high – in order to be above a large pile of debris (which no doubt a golf course clear-up can cause) – and the catch can then be released from the comfort of the tractor seat.
These lawn sweepers also have a flexible suspension, ideal for hilly and contoured lawns, which of course golf courses possess.
It should be comforting to know that the lawn sweepers featured on this site have, to some degree, all of the features mentioned above. Certainly they have the capabilities to clear debris off of a lawn. They might not be suitable for how golf courses are maintained, but that’s down to the sheer size of the courses, as well as the pressure a golf club groundsperson would feel to do the job thoroughly in the shortest space of time.
Otherwise, we’re proud that our tractor attachment of choice is used on some of the most famous venues in golf, and indeed world sport. Lawn sweepers are trusted by all – homeowners and golf institutions alike. Check out our range of tow behind lawn sweepers, and make your yard look as beautiful as a golf course.
Image Credits:
- “First Hole, Augusta National Golf Club” by Dan Perry. Image https://flic.kr/p/eeSHSh License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
- “Wentworth Golf Club” by Mauro De Carvalho. Image: https://flic.kr/p/L3A4ne License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/