I Wish I Had a Mower That Could ...

Watching the film "Wall-E" recently with my two daughters got me thinking about future inventions in the area of robotic golf course maintenance equipment (I really need to work on separating work and home life).

(PHOTO BY: ISTOCK INTERNATIONAL INC.)

Wall-E himself (he's a little trash compactor, for those of you who don't have kids) might be a little rough on turfgrass, unless he comes equipped with more turf-friendly tracks. But Eve, the slick, multi-purpose hovering white robot from the movie, could be, with a little tweaking and a few modifications, quite useful on the golf course.

Just think of the possibilities you could have with a robot like Eve. She could:

• cut cups without ever stepping on the greens;
• make drainage improvements without ever having to touch the saturated turf;
• transplant your tree nursery to the golf course in minutes; and
• destroy old equipment in your junk yard in a split second with her handy ray gun.

On a more realistic note, perhaps this is a good time to make a wish list for equipment inventions that superintendents would like to see within golf course maintenance — and, more specifically, inventions for the mowers that we use on greens, collars, tees, approaches and fairways.

In compiling this list, we should probably assume the technology behind the robot Eve is still a few centuries away. So here's a top-five list of, without going too far out there, the things I think would most benefit the mowing of the "short stuff" on golf courses around the world:

5 Clipping reduction on fairway mowers — I know some clubs are able to basket their fairway clippings, but for many others (my own club included) this is not an option. What we non-basket- catchers are left with is using plant growth regulators, mowing as often as we can, and mowing when possible in dry conditions (i.e., in the afternoon as opposed to the morning).

I have yet to see a fairway mower that can produce a clean cut with no clippings in wet conditions.

4 A more widespread ability to use alternative fuels in our mowers and golf cars — Hydrogen fuel may be the fuel of tomorrow. And tomorrow may be here sooner than we think. The landscape is literally changing before our eyes — and we must adapt to it.

3 Addressing noise and emissions concerns — This is a huge issue already for many golf courses, and it's only going to get worse with new regulations and a changing environment. Mowers, blowers, golf cars and just about everything golf courses use are going to have to be more environmentally friendly as we push forward. I know, great strides have been made in the last 10 years, but they are not going to be enough in the future.

2 More multi-purpose mowers (i.e., the ability to change height of cut on the go) — On a normal summer day, we usually have seven different heights of cut going on simultaneously — greens, collars, approaches and tees (usually the same height), step-cut, surrounds, primary rough and secondary rough. The ability to have a mower that could, with the push of a button, change from one height to another would be quite useful. Obviously, the same mower could not cut the secondary rough at 2.5 inches and turn around and cut the greens at .115, but some kind of overlap from, say, greens to collars or collars to approaches would be welcome. I know this technology does exist at a certain level, but making it more user-friendly for the operator would be a nice advancement.

1 Thinking mowers — I know this is coming, but wouldn't it be great to have a fairway mower know, for instance, that its own center reel is not cutting as good as the other four reels? Or know that it is about to hit a sprinkler head that didn't go down all the way the night before? Or know when a golfer is standing on the tee behind it, even when the operator is unaware?

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