Autonomous Mowing

[fixyurdivot]

Anyone seeing these on courses?  How far are we from this technology supplementing or replacing conventional course mowing?  

Here's a interesting article from the USGA on the subject.  None too happy about their ball rollback decision but good to see them studying advancements such as this.  Here is a course just outside Scottsdale that has implemented some robotic mowers.  But, according to this article, a course in the UK is the first in the world to become "fully managed" by robotic mowers.

Thoughts?

[Josh Parker]

I wish we had them at our course. The staff lacks some leadership and it shows on the course. We have tee boxes that don't get cut and some of the rough is deeper than the US Open. When they finally do cut it, they leave rows of clippings ready for baling. 

[fixyurdivot]

43 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

I wish we had them at our course. The staff lacks some leadership and it shows on the course. We have tee boxes that don't get cut and some of the rough is deeper than the US Open. When they finally do cut it, they leave rows of clippings ready for baling. 

One of the courses in MT often had bale rows if you happened to be playing at the wrong time.  The ROI on the robotic mowing operation looks pretty steep at present time and that is largely due to the upfront cost. Unless that changes, I wouldn't expect to see many courses we play switching over - except perhaps limited applications and part of evaluation.

Our 4 courses here lease all of the mowing and related ancillary equipment...to the tune of ~$900k/yr.  That seems like a lot until one compares to the how many $200k+ robotic mowers would be needed to maintain the courses.

[Josh Parker]

1 minute ago, fixyurdivot said:

One of the courses in MT often had bale rows if you happened to be playing at the wrong time.  The ROI on the robotic mowing operation looks pretty steep at present time and that is largely due to the upfront cost. Unless that changes, I wouldn't expect to see many courses we play switching over - except perhaps limited applications and part of evaluation.

Our 4 courses here lease all of the mowing and related ancillary equipment...to the tune of ~$900k/yr.  That seems like a lot until one compares to the how many $200k+ robotic mowers would be needed to maintain the courses.

Oh it would never happen at our course. We can't even get decent greens. Just wish the staff took a little more pride.  

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

We have one for our yard, but I haven't sorted how to work it yet. It is on my list of things to do at home today.... that is if it stops raining. We have a good sized yard and with tick season starting we need to keep the grass down low. 

[Shapotomous]

I want one of these automomous mowers for the yard....cut and fertilize in one step.

Speaking of advancing tech....

I would have thought synthetic tees or greens would be in use by now.  The cost to maintain a single green is so high i thought there would be incentive to come up with something that plays like the real stuff by now.

[ZJeb67]

15 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

Anyone seeing these on courses?  How far are we from this technology supplementing or replacing conventional course mowing?  

Here's a interesting article from the USGA on the subject.  None too happy about their ball rollback decision but good to see them studying advancements such as this.  Here is a course just outside Scottsdale that has implemented some robotic mowers.  But, according to this article, a course in the UK is the first in the world to become "fully managed" by robotic mowers.

Thoughts?

I think this will be adopted more and more and the prices will come down.

What could possibly go wrong? 

80

[jbern]

I'm surprised that there is a course that is fully managed by robot mowers. I would've guessed there's just too much grass area to mow for it to be feasible for robot mowers unless you have one for each hole. However, if courses lease their equipment anyway, the cost to lease a rider mower vs a robot mower (or several) might be closer than you think.

I've always been interested in these for my house, but I just purchased a nice zero-turn last summer. My mow time went from 90ish minutes to less than 20 minutes, so I'm pretty happy about it.

[fixyurdivot]

On 3/18/2024 at 6:58 AM, Shapotomous said:

I want one of these automomous mowers for the yard....cut and fertilize in one step.

Speaking of advancing tech....

I would have thought synthetic tees or greens would be in use by now.  The cost to maintain a single green is so high i thought there would be incentive to come up with something that plays like the real stuff by now.

I am hearing of a new hybrid grass that is being tested here in the Phoenix area, and that survives and looks great all year round.  If the traditional "overseeding" process could be avoided, that would reduce costs and reduce course downtime.  It purportedly requires less water!

[ShimmyCocoBop]

I was at the PGA GC Driving Range in Port St. Lucie, FL yesterday and witnessed their new robotic ball picker.

They have a gigantic area of turf (the range is about a 270* near circle - see video below before they got the robo-picker), so they could save many man-hours.  

I'd love to see a cost analysis on it.

The Robo-picker is pretty low, so it takes some of the fun away from people who like to hit the driver in the protective cage...

Sorry - video would not load...

Edited March 29 by ShimmyCocoBop

[Kenny B]

On 3/17/2024 at 4:08 PM, fixyurdivot said:

Anyone seeing these on courses?  How far are we from this technology supplementing or replacing conventional course mowing?  

Here's a interesting article from the USGA on the subject.  None too happy about their ball rollback decision but good to see them studying advancements such as this.  Here is a course just outside Scottsdale that has implemented some robotic mowers.  But, according to this article, a course in the UK is the first in the world to become "fully managed" by robotic mowers.

Thoughts?

Maybe fairways, but Bill… you’ve played here; do you see these working on the grassy mounds where our rough is?  

I imagine lots of things happening.  What if it misses a section; will the course eventually look like crap?   While it supposedly won’t run into anything, it might and then lawsuits if it were a golfer/child.  I’m sure it will run over a ProV1 just like the guys do here on their mowers.   Martha is worried about her squirrels.  

[fixyurdivot]

2 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Maybe fairways, but Bill… you’ve played here; do you see these working on the grassy mounds where our rough is?  

I imagine lots of things happening.  What if it misses a section; will the course eventually look like crap?   While it supposedly won’t run into anything, it might and then lawsuits if it were a golfer/child.  I’m sure it will run over a ProV1 just like the guys do here on their mowers.   Martha is worried about her squirrels.  

Oh for sure there is the legal possibilities... but autonomous vehicles are all the rage .  They'll design auto contour following systems to handle those moguls at Columbia Point and remind Martha that a few squirrels with bad haircuts is the small price we pay for progress .