The Wish List

he following golf course maintenance equipment list is comprised for an 18-hole golf course and practices areas, including putting green(s), chipping green(s), driving range and a short-game practice area. It’s an updated version of the list I prepared for this magazine back in the 1990s that was updated again in 2007. This new-and-improved version reflects new types of maintenance equipment available. This list also is updated with equipment required to provide upgraded agronomic and playing-condition standards today’s golfers demand.

Obviously, this list is for a high-end facility and should be used as a guideline only, adjusted accordingly, for private, semiprivate, public, municipal, resort, casino and military-type golf course maintenance operations. Adjustments depend on each venue’s agronomic and playing-condition standards, goals and objectives, as well as available capital equipment and maintenance operating budget funding. This listing has also been adjusted since, and because of, the economic downturn in 2008 to affect the economies of scale.

One equipment manager on staff on an 18 hole course is expected and required to maintain and repair all of today’s sophisticated maintenance equipment, as an assistant mechanic also is required to help perform preventative maintenance practices/servicing, sharpening/lapping, ordering parts and supplies, record keeping, research, repairs, etc. Also, whenever possible and practical, there should be at least two of every piece of equipment in inventory so there is a backup machine in place so that maintenance practices can continue while waiting for servicing, repairs, parts orders deliveries, etc.

Not part of this listing: equipment manager’s shop equipment and tools; maintenance building, lunch room, kitchen and office (FFE) equipment; golf course accessories; course setup equipment; tournament Preparation equipment; and hand tools.

Greens and practice areas

• 7 walk-behind greens mowers with groomer/brush attachments
• 5 turning mats
• 5 turf vehicles with trailers
• 2 triplex greens mowers with groomer/brush attachments
• 1 set of light verticut reels for triplex greens mower
• 1 set of spiker attachments for triplex greens mower
• 1 tow-type, or turf vehicle mounted, spinner-type greens topdressing machine
• 2 topdressing drag brushes
• 1 175-gallon sprayer mounted on a turf vehicle with a walk-behind hooded spray boom, hose reel and attachments (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 2 rotary push-type fertilizer spreaders
• 2 drop-type push-type fertilizer spreaders
• 4 backpack blowers
• 2 tournament speed rollers with spiker/brush attachments with trailers
• 1 walk-behind, deep verticut machine with topdresser attachment
• 2 green’s aerifiers with core collection/windrow system
• 1 deep-tine green’s aerifier
• 1 green’s sweeper
• 1 water-injection aerifier with optional head
• 1 aerifier core harvester
• 1 plug pusher
• 1 sand injection machine
• 1 portable, subsurface greens drainage portable blower/pump
• 1 dimple seeder (where applicable)
• 1 moisture meter
• 1 digital soil thermometer
• 1 surface tension meter
• 1 stimpmeter

Fairways*

• 3 five-plex fairway mowers with one spare set of cutting units (four-wheel drive where applicable) (groomer attachments where applicable)
• 1 set of light verticut reels for five-plex fairway mowers
• 3 grass clipping collection trailers (where applicable)
• 1 pull-type fairway topdresser with material handling system
• 2 large fairway topdressing drag mats
• 2 triplex greens/fairway mowers with one spare set of cutting units (all-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 large rotary PTO, pull-type or turf vehicle mounted fertilizer spreader
• 1 combined rototiller/seeder
• 1 300-gallon sprayer mounted on maintenance vehicle with hooded spray booms, hose reels and attachments (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 pull-type sweeper/vacuum
• 1 three-gang pull-type fairway/rough roller or 5 plex self-contained fairway roller
• 1 fairway aerifier
• 1 deep-tine fairway aerifier
• 1 shatter/pulverizer/slicer type aerator
• 1 plug pulverizer/sweeper
• 1 deep fairway verticut 3 point hitch PTO unit
• 1 PTO verticut/slit-seeder (where applicable)
• 2 turbine blowers with a trailer or turf vehicle mounted
• 1 grass clipping scattering/dispersal machine

Tees, collars/approaches/collection fairways*

• 4 walk-behind 26-inch-wide tee/collar mowers
• 2 turf vehicles with trailers
• 2 triplex tee mowers with one spare set of cutting units (all-wheel drive where applicable)
• 2 walk-behind aerifiers with core collection/windrow system
• Use fairway mower if practice tees are large enough

Bunkers

• 2 riding bunker rakes with front sand blades, spiker attachment and one landscape scraper box (all-wheel drive where applicable)
• 3 bunker/sidewalk powered reciprocator-type edgers
• 3 hovercraft-type rotary mowers
• 3 string-line trimmers

Clubhouse

• 2 walk-behind, self-propelled rotary mowers with grass catchers
• 2 riding trim mowers (with optional sulkies)
• 2 turf vehicles with trailers
• 2 sidewalk edgers
• 2 string-line trimmers
• 2 backpack blowers
• 2 backpack sprayers
• 1 power brush to sweep parking lots, sidewalks, etc.

Maintained roughs, intermediate roughs and walk paths*

• 1 12-foot-wide and/or 16-foot-wide riding rotary mower (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 72- to 88-inch-wide riding rotary mower (four-wheel drive where applicable with leaf mulch kits where applicable)
• 2 triplex rotary-type utility mowers (all-wheel drive where applicable)
• 2 triplex reel-type mowers (all-wheel drive where applicable)
• 5 string-line trimmers
• 3 hovercraft-type rotary mowers
• 1 PTO tractor-mounted blower
• 1 pull-type vacuum/sweeper
• 3 backpack blowers

Miscellaneous

• 3 utility tractors with turf tires (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 skid-steer loader with fork lift, power auger, brush and other attachments
• 1 mini-excavator trackhoe with rubber tracks
• 1 loader/backhoe tractor with turf tires (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 300-gallon, self-contained hydromulcher (where applicable)
• 2 turf vehicles with hydraulic dump body (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 one-ton dump truck (four-wheel drive with snow plow and salt spreader where applicable)
• 1 large dump trailer
• 1 three-quarter-ton pickup truck with power lift tail gate (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 SUV, car or pickup truck for the superintendent (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 18-inch sod cutter
• 1 portable, 6,000-12,000 watt electric generator (with trailer where applicable)
• 1 electric golf cart for the golf course superintendent
• 1 equipment transport trailer licensed for highway use
• 1 powered riding utility roller
• 1 three-point hitch tractor-mounted landscape scraper box with spring loaded teeth
• 1 three-point hitch tractor-mounted landscape rake
• 1 drag-type landscape harrow
• 1 rowboat with oars and electric/gasoline motor
• 3 chainsaws (different sizes) and climbing equipment
• 1 stump grinder
• 1 chipper
• 2 gasoline-engine-powered pole tree pruners
• 2 backpack sprayers
• 1 equipment manager’s all-terrain turf vehicle with generator, air compressor, torches, welder and tool box (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 gasoline-powered firewood splitter (where applicable)
• 1 irrigation technician’s turf vehicle with generator, air compressor and tool box (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 6 roller squeegees
• 1 500-gallon water wagon/tank trailer mounted.
• 2 topdressing silos/covered/enclosed topdressing bins
• 1 premixing tank for chemicals and fertilizers

Irrigation and drainage

• 1 small loader/small backhoe compact tractor with turf tires (four-wheel drive where applicable)
• 1 four-wheel drive trencher with backfill blade with pipe or wire puller and attachments
• 1 electric wire locator
• 1 electric wire fault finder
• 1 metal detector
• 1 irrigation-system PVC pipe specialty locator
• 1 sprinkler-head-leveler devise
• 1 portable GPS location devise
• 1 portable, three-inch diameter trash pump with suction/discharge hoses and trailer
• 1 fertigation system
• 1 injection system