Moving to less mowing

When Scott Kincaid arrived at Blue Ash Golf Course in 1996, a year and change after completing his turf studies at Rutgers University, the tees and greens were less than two decades old and the neighborhoods around the Michael Hurdzan and Jack Kidwell design were still popping up. Life in the Cincinnati suburb was starting to round into shape.

More than 25 years later, Kincaid is still at the municipal course and is now the superintendent. The neighborhoods are packed, and the city is booming thanks to almost a dozen corporate headquarters, including Kroger’s technology division and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon. Kincaid has worked through — and assisted with — event center construction and new park development. But what will certainly be his favorite building project is fast approaching: a new maintenance facility.

“We got it through the budget process and approved for this year,” Kincaid says. “We’re trying to make the timeline as short as possible from design to construction.” Work could start as early as this fall if contractors can be hired and scheduled.

Like so many superintendents, Kincaid’s conditions are serviceable but far from ideal. Equipment isn’t always easy to find or access, often leading to small scavenger hunts. The current maintenance area, which opened with the course in 1979, is undersized and no longer fits with the neighborhood. Its out-of-place architecture style stretches 10,800 square feet among five buildings — including two sheds, a pole barn and “an old miniature greenhouse.” The plans for the new facility will increase area by almost 60 percent to about 17,000 square feet and bring everything under one roof.

“I know other guys are probably as in need of a facility as we were,” Kincaid says. “You just have to sell the project, make it known that it needs to be replaced. You can’t be too heavy-handed, just know when to push, know when to pull, know when to just back off and let things go.

“It’s tough to convince any course to spend a large amount of money on something that has no direct impact on the golfer. The golfer’s never going to be inside, never going to see all this. Anything we do in there makes no difference to the golfer. Ultimately, it will — we’ll be more efficient, the equipment will be better taken care of, it will help with morale.”

The Blue Ash team also includes assistant superintendent Josh Bryant and mechanic Bubba Schneider, who work year-round. Second assistant Glen Kraus, foreman Jim Eigel, landscapers Roger Titkeneyer and Lisa Hoeper, and administrative assistant Pat Wakim round out the crew. “It’s a great team,” Kincaid says. “Makes everything flow smoothly.”

Increased round counts the last two seasons — 44,700 in 2021 and 44,900 in 2022, up from about 40,000 before the pandemic boom — have sparked Kincaid to modify some practices. He has embraced Cutless MEC plant growth regulator on greens, and will likely increase Musketeer turf growth regulator after “dabbling with it on the nursery green.” Kincaid had already added Cutless 50W PRG before 2020.

“The benefit is we can reduce our mowing — and with a hard time finding labor, it makes a big difference,” Kincaid says. “We were mowing three days a week on fairways, approaches and tees. Now, for the bulk of the year, we can get away with two mowings a week. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the equipment. And there are times, if the weather is really, really hot and nasty, we can get away with one mowing a week. We keep them pretty well regulated, and we don’t see an issue with traffic wear where we maintain our regulation.

“We try to mow Mondays and Fridays now and it just saves hours on the equipment. We stretch the life expectancy a little bit more too. We get a couple more years out of them, just by cutting down one-third of their use throughout the season.”

That’s good news for Bubba, who will likely be working out of a greenhouse throughout construction. Soon enough, though, as early as next summer, Bubba will be back indoors, the new maintenance facility will make work life a little easier, and Kincaid can turn his eyes toward another project. 