2013 Byron Nelson Championship in 2 Weeks

We are in full prep mode for the 2013 Byron Nelson Championship which is here in 2 weeks and so I thought I would share a few photos and some of the things we are doing this week.

One of the biggest changes this year is that we have installed greens mower tournament knives on our fairway units and tee/approach mowers. I know you maybe wondering why would we do that what difference can it make? The difference it makes is that it reduces the drag the bedknife has on the grass and prevents us from having scalped areas. What this translates into is a clean appearance and no scuff marks where we may have a little more grain. Having the thinner knives we want to make sure we keep the edge sharp so we are grinding them “fairways, tees and approaches once a week. Having the new S.I.P reel and bedknife grinder allows us a quick touch up grind in about 45 minutes to an hour per fairway mower. That is complete disassembly, grinding both reel and bedknife and then back together.

This year I have also assigned our volunteers and staff in the shop specific pieces of equipment that they are in charge of. I feel that taking the guessing game out on whether something has been check out or not is best. So I have a guy in charge of greens another in charge of carts, another with fairways/tees and approaches, etc. So throughout tournament week I know who is responsible for what items and accountability for those tasks now insures that they are done on a daily basis and nothing falls through the cracks. It is very easy during tournament week to get busy and forget things that need to be done and I believe this will prevent us from being in that situation.

Overall we are in really good shape. The only thing holding us back is mother nature. We have been cold here for quite a while and as soon as the grass starts to grow we get another cold front that will set it back. Looking forward to a great event.