Width of fairway grass mower stripes

[chazgw]

Is there a standard width of mower stripes on fairways? I realize that not every course uses the same machine to mow, so there's probably some variance from course to course. If that's the case, is there a general width? I played on a course that had 8 strips on pretty much every fairway, lined by trees. Hence, the name of the course is "Iron Masters" in Pennsylvania.

[smashdn]

But rough makes it harder. Harder makes it better. With a six hour round you sell more hot dogs at the turn too.

[James the Hogan Fan]

Well a pretty standard fairway mower is the Toro Reelmaster, that looks like this:

 

They come in different versions with different widths, but the one pictured is 102” width of cut. Allowing for overlap on passes of say 6-12”, say 8’ give or take wide. So 8 strips at 8’ is 64’ feet, or 21 yards.

 

If they were using a triplex for some reason, say a greensmaster, w.o.c. would be more like 60”. Of course a tow-behind gang mower could be 12’ or more.

 

Some courses use a black/white cut that involves doing all passes on one half of a fairway in a single direction. Individual strips are not seen.

[mallrat]

2 questions, how wide were the stripes and what direction were they? VERY few courses will mow 12-6 (imagine a golf hole is the face of a watch, so straight, 3-9 would be completely horizontal) on fairways mainly because of ability of mowers, to mow 12-6 your guys need to put down perfect straight lines otherwise they will be very noticeable. Now as you move out into 2-8 & 10-4 lines you will be adding lines just because of the direction. I’ve never seen 3-9 mowed on a fairway but have seen it sprayed but it would take forever.

 

Another option that is rarely used is double wide mows. So you would make 2 passes each direction takes longer, it takes longer and looks really cool.

 

What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

[James the Hogan Fan]

> @mallrat said:

> 2 questions, how wide were the stripes and what direction were they? VERY few courses will mow 12-6 (imagine a golf hole is the face of a watch, so straight, 3-9 would be completely horizontal) on fairways mainly because of ability of mowers, to mow 12-6 your guys need to put down perfect straight lines otherwise they will be very noticeable. Now as you move out into 2-8 & 10-4 lines you will be adding lines just because of the direction. I’ve never seen 3-9 mowed on a fairway but have seen it sprayed but it would take forever.

>

> Another option that is rarely used is double wide mows. So you would make 2 passes each direction takes longer, it takes longer and looks really cool.

>

> What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

 

I thought the Augusta stripe was 15 mowers in one unit cutting the whole fairway in one pass... because they can!

 

We cut ours 5-11 and 7-1 on alternating cut days. 4 stripes of 3-9 at the transition to the approach. (Approaches always 3-9). 12-6 only if there is a big hurry

[BNGL]

> @mallrat said:

> 2 questions, how wide were the stripes and what direction were they? VERY few courses will mow 12-6 (imagine a golf hole is the face of a watch, so straight, 3-9 would be completely horizontal) on fairways mainly because of ability of mowers, to mow 12-6 your guys need to put down perfect straight lines otherwise they will be very noticeable. Now as you move out into 2-8 & 10-4 lines you will be adding lines just because of the direction. I’ve never seen 3-9 mowed on a fairway but have seen it sprayed but it would take forever.

>

> Another option that is rarely used is double wide mows. So you would make 2 passes each direction takes longer, it takes longer and looks really cool.

>

> What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

 

You spray 3-9, or perpendicular to the line of play, so you don’t see mistakes or overlaps which will happen.

[BNGL]

> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > @mallrat said:

> > 2 questions, how wide were the stripes and what direction were they? VERY few courses will mow 12-6 (imagine a golf hole is the face of a watch, so straight, 3-9 would be completely horizontal) on fairways mainly because of ability of mowers, to mow 12-6 your guys need to put down perfect straight lines otherwise they will be very noticeable. Now as you move out into 2-8 & 10-4 lines you will be adding lines just because of the direction. I’ve never seen 3-9 mowed on a fairway but have seen it sprayed but it would take forever.

> >

> > Another option that is rarely used is double wide mows. So you would make 2 passes each direction takes longer, it takes longer and looks really cool.

> >

> > What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

>

> I thought the Augusta stripe was 15 mowers in one unit cutting the whole fairway in one pass... because they can!

>

> We cut ours 5-11 and 7-1 on alternating cut days. 4 stripes of 3-9 at the transition to the approach. (Approaches always 3-9). 12-6 only if there is a big hurry

 

15 if it’s a narrower fairway, if I remember correctly they’ll be up to 25 on one hole

[Johnny Biarritz]

> @mallrat said:

> 2 questions, how wide were the stripes and what direction were they? VERY few courses will mow 12-6 (imagine a golf hole is the face of a watch, so straight, 3-9 would be completely horizontal) on fairways mainly because of ability of mowers, to mow 12-6 your guys need to put down perfect straight lines otherwise they will be very noticeable. Now as you move out into 2-8 & 10-4 lines you will be adding lines just because of the direction. I’ve never seen 3-9 mowed on a fairway but have seen it sprayed but it would take forever.

>

> Another option that is rarely used is double wide mows. So you would make 2 passes each direction takes longer, it takes longer and looks really cool.

>

> What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

 

I just looked at the course on Google Maps...they're mowing straight down and back, 12-6. On doglegs, they just curve the mowing lines right with the dogleg. And yeah, they all look about 8 passes wide. One hole has 30 yards between bunkers and about 24 yards of fairway.

[greglarson2]

> @mallrat said:

> What James refers to as a black/white we generally call either block mowing or an Augusta Stripe

 

I've always called that the Shinnecock. As others have said Augusta mows all in the same direction.

[mallrat]

I was mistaking on the Augusta Stripe, my bad. Does anyone know how they do double wide stripes efficiently? Never done it any any of my courses

[TheRatt87]

> @mallrat said:

> I was mistaking on the Augusta Stripe, my bad. Does anyone know how they do double wide stripes efficiently? Never done it any any of my course

 

 

 

[James the Hogan Fan]

> @mallrat said:

> I was mistaking on the Augusta Stripe, my bad. Does anyone know how they do double wide stripes efficiently? Never done it any any of my courses

 

With two mowers you go Nike: just do it?

 

With only one I can think either be really good at guessing a mower-width, and just leave the gap. Or then you can do a looooot of driving around in circles:

 

[mallrat]

> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > @mallrat said:

> > I was mistaking on the Augusta Stripe, my bad. Does anyone know how they do double wide stripes efficiently? Never done it any any of my courses

>

> With two mowers you go Nike: just do it?

>

> With only one I can think either be really good at guessing a mower-width, and just leave the gap. Or then you can do a looooot of driving around in circles:

>

>

 

That’s what I was thinking but then you have them constantly turning into each other and in theory you run the chance of them running into each other or running their reels into each other.