Nicholas Daak said: I am assuming it is just the heat and stress from greens mowers turning on them, even though they are taught and told many times not to.
Nicholas,
You have made a perfect point. All these posts about putting down "boards", or whatever, to protect the collars from employees spinning their walk mowers, in what I assume is a "perfect" 180 degree turn (there's no gold medal for that), are troubling.
Get your operators to go where needed, even if it's 10 feet off the green, then turn. If you happen to be mowing in a direction headed right to a green-side bunker, then they can "walk" the machine down that strip to an area where they can turn.
How much time are we talking about? More than having another employee, or employees, place "turning boards"? That is absurd. I don't care whether we're talking about triplexes or walking mowers. If your turf is stressed, or even if it's not, why would you accept a "zip" turn? Is the intent to knock off two minutes...at most? C'mon...they spend more time than that driving to where they're supposed to empty their buckets!
Common sense. If the operator sees that the area is "thin", then drive, or walk the machine to an area that is not, before turning. And it doesn't need turn on a dime. That's not smart maintenance, that's just showing off.
Again, placing down "turning mats?" Unbelievable.