Grass Clipping Dump Trailers
Brian Mabie, the former director of golf course maintenance at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, and another employee designed and built the original grass clipping dump trailers in the 1980s from scratch, used when mowing fairways. The trailers were originally attached to each fairway mower but are now towed in a series of four trailers at a time by a Toro Workman, strategically placing them around the golf holes. The 2-cubic-yard refuse containers were originally sold by Cushman. There are two sets of four trailers each, used daily. The hydraulic lift hoses are connected to the Workman’s dual hydraulic ports that lifts and lowers the bed, where a trailer jack stand keeps them vertical for easy hook-up. In 2021, a new dump trailer was built by a third party, with the total labor time unknown. The 2-cubic-yard Roto Hi Dump by Peregrine, Inc., with lift cylinder and framing cost $6,315, the custom trailer was $3,550, with the hopper costing $1,700. Larry Napora is the current director of golf course operations at Firestone, where course architects include Bert Way (South), Robert Trent Jones Sr. (North) and Tom Fazio (Fazio).
Fuzzy Buckets
Beau Backstrom, the superintendent at the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky, Montana, and crew used to use a broom before mowing the greens to stand up the lateral growth. Backstrom produced the idea to do two jobs at once by using a cocoa mat installed on the bottom of the John Deere 220E walk mower’s grass catchers. Each mat measures 24 inches by 7 inches, using four sets of two washers, bullets, with locking nuts. A new 4 foot by 6 foot Par Aide cocoa mat (SKU: COC4x6) costs about $695, replacing the old one, which was cut into pieces for the Fuzzy Buckets. It took about three hours to install them on five grass catchers. Ryan Blechta is director of grounds and mountain operations. Tom Weiskopf and Phil Smith designed the course.
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