Breaking into battery power

Headshot: Chris Erickson

Local noise restrictions and residents and members living right alongside the golf course are major concerns for many golf course superintendents, and Chris Erickson, superintendent at Del Mar Country Club, is no different. His crew at Del Mar CC, an 18-hole private country club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., is all-in on battery-powered equipment, especially while performing maintenance tasks at 6 a.m., when his crews typically kick off their day.

“Within the country club community, there are noise restrictions until 7:00 a.m.,” Erickson explains. “We want to still be productive, yet abide by the noise restrictions for that first hour, so we’ll use a lot of the battery-powered equipment during that time. We have a golf course staff, as well as a clubhouse landscape staff, and both teams and operations utilize this equipment.”

Erickson shares how Del Mar got into battery power and how they’re reaping the benefits.

How does battery-powered equipment fit into the maintenance operations at Del Mar?

We’re able to get a lot done within that first hour before we go off to the course to start maintenance without disrupting neighbors and residents in the community. It gives us an opportunity to do some maintenance at the clubhouse, which is right across the street from our maintenance facility. We also use the string trimmers quite a bit. We’re able to go out and edge bunkers and string trim around trees and other accessories on the golf course. The blowers allow us to blow all the leaves and debris and clean up the parking lot surfaces.

We have a couple of extension hedge trimmers, four hand blowers, two string trimmers and two backpack blowers. We use the hand blowers for equipment operators in the morning that are able to put a hand blower in the back of their cart. They can use it around cart path areas, around tees and greens. Our greens mowers are equipped with hand blowers, so (crew members) can blow clippings off of the greens without running the risk of a fuel leak. We have three greens mowers that go out in the morning, and they each take one, and then the cup setter, so one person will change cups and move tee markers.

What do you like about the equipment?

Not only the amount of power that they supply, but the design of the equipment, that it can stand up to the environment of being transported in golf carts, and the long, high number of hours used on it. So power, rugged design and ergonomics are three of the big characteristics that we look for in good equipment, and this seems to fit all of those categories. Another thing that’s also important is that parts are easy to get, and we haven’t had an issue there. Customer service is really good, not only from the distributor, but the manufacturer.

What initially sparked your interest in battery-powered equipment?

It was pitched to us by our sales distributor. They knew about our situation with noise restrictions in the mornings. In the past, we would find other jobs that didn’t create a lot of noise, and we used that time to do more of that manual stuff. Our sales rep let us try out the equipment for a couple of weeks so that we really got to experience it. That gave us the confidence that it was going to hold up and meet the demands of our program.

What was the feedback from members and employees when switching to the equipment?

We have much fewer noise complaints is the biggest result of incorporating the battery-powered equipment. (For employees), there’s always the inclination and desire to stick with what people are familiar with. They were more familiar with gas power, but they don’t need to use earplugs (with battery power). Really, all you hear is the action of either the blades on the trimmers or the blower motor. There wasn’t much resistance; there was just more the inclination to want to use the equipment that they’re familiar with. But, it didn’t take long to become a part of the daily program.