Greens Mowing Etiquette

[skipneumann]

I recently complained to the course owner and club pro about several incidents of the crew mowing the green and now the crew members are upset... the head crew member told me to "go to another course". Both times the course was closed to play on the front and we were sent off the back; I had hit my approach shot to the green and the ball was on the fringe. The crew came on and mowed.. actually went around my ball. The second incident was the 2 days later... the front was closed and we had to go off the back... this time we were just about to hit our approach shots and the head crew member came flying out after the group ahead of us got off the green and mowed. I feel very uncomfortable that the crew guys are upset with me but am I wrong to be upset about the mowing? thanks

[brgolf]

The owner or club pro should have been able to resolve the issue. What did they say?

[James_Black]

it depends on how busy the course is.

They HAVE to mow the greens, if the course is busy they'll have to stop people playing. They've no choice.
If the course was quiet they should have waited for you to move off the greens first before they started mowing.

[Fourputt]

My question is why are they mowing the greens when golfers are on the course? The only mowing done on my home course which might interfere with play is the fairways and rough, simply because it takes too long to finish the large parts of the course before the players catch up to those mowers. As a result the fairways and rough are mowed in reverse (starting on 18 and 9 and working backwards) so that even the early players only see a couple of mowers at most during a round. The greens and aprons are mowed in order of play starting on 1 and 10.

The mowers go out 1/2 hour before the first tee time, so the greens and aprons are being mowed at least 2 holes ahead of any golfers. No players are ever allowed out sooner than 1/2 hour after the mowers (our first tee time right now is 5:42 AM - the mowers head out a bit after 5). The mowers have to use headlights to begin with, except for the greens which are walk mowed. I have never had to play around a mower on the green or fringe.

[Chief Broom]

To the OP: Man up. You made the complaint. I suppose because you felt justified in doing so (I can't comment about that because I wasn't there), so if the crew is copping an attitude with you about it tell them why you did it and that you'd appreciate them not doing that kind of thing to you. If perhaps it's your conscience that is bothering you because you think your complaint might not have been justified, then apologize to the crew and let it go. If they still have an attitude that's their problem not yours. The lesson here is to always remember that what you say has consequences and sometimes it isn't always pleasant. In my experience the people who complain the most get a lot of stuff, but they also get a reputation for being hard to please. I've personally found that if I give people the benefit of the doubt and let stuff go I'm happier for it, but then I'm not a guy who complains much, and I'm not a guy who gets comped a bunch of stuff because I sound off when I'm not happy. Take your pick...

[TourSpoon]

Having worked at a course years ago, we would sometimes be the first group out and yes the mowers had lights. Occasionally, we had to wait for a green to be finished but then they usually lost us. I could appreciate how early those guys got up and occasionally they could be running behind because of someone being late or equipment failure. I always had the opinion that if the crew was cutting the green, then I would be the beneficiary as they can be really nasty from the dew and overnight growth.

This should have been handled by the operator/pro and either explained to you or the crew depending on the situation. If you really want to get on any greenskeeper's good side, just show up with donuts and coffee. For $10-15 bucks you can be a hero. I still think that if you are the first group out, you will see this every now and then.

[lonewolf]

To the OP:

There seems to be a lot of missing details in your story.

What time were you playing? public coure? private course? Sevral incidents or just 2 that you mentioned?

[double_j]

It's understood at my course that if we play at an 'odd' time or the weather was bad in the morning, chances are that you'll see the grounds crew out there doing some maintenance and yes, sometimes you might even have to wait for them to finish a green or fairway. I never mind it because 1.) those off hour rounds are usually so fast that I can afford to wait for a couple of minutes while they mow, 2.) the crew never dawdles, etc.- they always get the job done in the minimum amount of time they need to finish properly, and 3.) the crew is always courteous about having to interrupt our game. The take great care not to affect our lies, etc. and usually show appreciation for our patience.

My take - unless you feel that the grounds crew did not show you the level of respect that they might have shown somebody else or was otherwise intentionally disruptive, then you're out of luck. They gotta mow sometime and they can't afford to take forever to do it. Those guys were just doing their job. If you just feel like it was wrong for them to be out there while golfers were on the course, then yes, maybe it is time to find a new course with a different policy.

[Paradox]

I work in the green industry..and I still don't feel like mowers should be the priority during open hours. They chose to work at the GOLF COURSE. They aren't just mowing grass. If they have to wait an extra 5 minutes or 10 to cut a green, then thats the price of the job.

It reminds me of one young kid I saw mowing a fairway not too long ago. No head protection or anything...Saw a group standing on the tee, SAW the first guy swing..and he kept on mowing while the rest of them hit, as well. They even waited a couple minutes to see if he would get back up to a safe spot and stop, but he didn't.

Mowers and other maintainence guys should be like everything else unnatural on the golf course, we shouldn't notice that they are present.

[walk18]

  skipneumann said:

I recently complained to the course owner and club pro about several incidents of the crew mowing the green and now the crew members are upset... the head crew member told me to "go to another course". Both times the course was closed to play on the front and we were sent off the back; I had hit my approach shot to the green and the ball was on the fringe. The crew came on and mowed.. actually went around my ball. The second incident was the 2 days later... the front was closed and we had to go off the back... this time we were just about to hit our approach shots and the head crew member came flying out after the group ahead of us got off the green and mowed. I feel very uncomfortable that the crew guys are upset with me but am I wrong to be upset about the mowing? thanks

It sounds like you had a legitimate complaint and the grounds crew decided to act like a bunch of jerks. Bring some shag balls with you and the next time that guy jumps in front of you with the mower, fire away! A couple of 3 iron stingers sent his way oughta do it.

[lonewolf]

Your'e not serious with the 3 iron stingers,,,,are you?

[Shorty]

  TourSpoon said:

If you really want to get on any greenskeeper's good side, just show up with donuts and coffee. For $10-15 bucks you can be a hero.

They'll think you're even more of an a*hole if you do this.

I always give the greens staff priority. It might irritate me a bit if I'm waiting for them to mow a green while I'm ready to hit my approach shot, but I just assume that there are good reasons why they are doing it at that time. A guaranteed way of becoming known as a prick is to whinge about greenkepers.

[TourSpoon]

Yeah, it works better before you really piss them off! We used to love the members that took care of us. The ones that treated us like pricks always were wondering why they weren't getting the white glove treatment.

[WUTiger]

If the mower guy cuts and re-cups Green 1, then Green 2, etc., this can take a lot of time.

Some greenskeepers have their early morning crews mow their greens in clusters... greens that are next to each other, such as: 1, 4, 7, 16 | 2, 13, 15, ... etc.

If the head guy works out a cluster system, the mower guy doesn't have to drive nearly as far in the morning as he would if mowing greens in sequence #1 to #18. This saves time.

Also, some greenskeepers build a team, others just have people that work for them. Some greenskeepers are solid leaders and good bosses, others aren't.

[DonW]

It could be worse, you should try playing a course as a woman. In the past five years

I have seen a mower chase my wife around two trees while she was trying to hit her second shot onto a par four, it was obvious he deviated from his pattern as we had watched him as we waited on the tee for him to get out of range, he had shut down the mower while I played my second shot and then started the mower up and crossed to fairway directly to where my wife was preparing to swing and proceeded to mow with chute aimed right at her as she dodged behind trees trying to avoid being hit by debris. When I got there he then shut the mowers down and drove off somewhere else on the course even though he hadn't finished the rough where we were. I was furious and wanted to go straight to head pro and discuss the situation but my wife wouldn't let me.

Another course where we were members the mower is running around the green doing the first cut, he shut down to allow me to putt then restarted the mower as soon as my wife approached her ball to putt. Several months later we are waiting for the mower (different staffer then the first incident) to clear the fairway which he is mowing to play our second shots to the green, upon seeing me he idles the mower and waves me to hit right over his head to the green(he knew me well as we spoke to each other on a regular basis and once played several holes together), my wife then steps up to her ball and before she can take her stance he revs up the mower and proceeds right to her ball and signals her to move it out of his way so he can continue on his path. I was so dumb founded I couldn't believe what I just saw. I got to know several of the crew and know policy was to stop the mowers and allow players to play through, again my wife wouldn't let me say anything to the pro who knew me well enough to give me permission to play the course even when it was closed.

[sean_miller]

  WUTiger said:

If the mower guy cuts and re-cups Green 1, then Green 2, etc., this can take a lot of time.

That's how we did it. Going in order of the holes takes way longer.

When you tee off early, you might have to wait for the grounds crew a couple times - pretty common sense. Members probably know which tee times to avoid.

[zackr]

Here is the way we do it where I work, we go out 30 minutes before the first tee time and we leap frog, one guy goes out on 1 and another on 2 and they leap frog each other until they are done.

[Fourputt]

  sean_miller said:

That's how we did it. Going in order of the holes takes way longer.

Not if your maintenance supervisors and mowers know what they are doing and are given the necessary head start. Our guys get out about 2 or 2½ holes ahead of the first players. They have no trouble finishing as much and an hour before the players finish the side they are playing. The employee cutting the daily holes follows the mowers and he also stays ahead of the players. In 4 years of working in the starter booth I've never seen a player beat the mower or the hole cutter to either the 9th or the 18th green. Not once. And this is on a public course managed under the auspices of a parks and recreation district. Privately owned public courses and private clubs should be able to do the job at least as well.