11/1/2019 10:11 AM
in reply to
Bradley Frunchak
I haven't used one of these Turf-Trainer attachments, but will say that any device - even one like this that has no "mechanical action" - will lift some of the long grass blades into the mowing range so they can be clipped off. Since that is the goal of using such a device - sure, there is some benefit to it!
I admire the innovation of industry professionals that can come up with economical ways to tweak a routine procedure to create a better end result. That was always one of the most rewarding aspects of my supt career spanning nearly three decades.
That said, in my years of demoing the TB grooming brush, I was able to groom more in one pass than a "static" brushing device could do in 4 or 5 passes and in some cases they couldn't match the performance of the TB no matter how many passes they made.
One demo that I continue to use as a testimonial occurred 8 or 9 years ago in southern WI. A great supt at a very nice country club allowed me to demo the brush on a 5,000 sq ft green that had been mowed early that September morning. He told me on the way to the green that he used a fixed brush on the front of his walk mowers several times per week and his cutting height was at .120". I asked that he mow this green after I brushed it, so his asst brought a triplex set at the same height of cut. I made a quick, once-over "looping" pattern over the green as a grooming procedure that took less than 5 minutes. The supt and I observed the mower cut the right half of the green and make one pass on the left half before heading off the green. The supt asked "where is he going??" to which I replied "to empty the baskets since they're nearly full of clippings!!" The asst came back and mowed the remaining half of the green and the cleanup and had another half basket of clippings. That's a first-hand comparison of a mechanical action brush versus a static device. Needless to say, this demo led to an easy sale.
It's been over six months since there was a thread going on here having to do with increasing speed on Penncross greens. There was an excellent discussion going on over a couple months until I was admonished for using the Forum for a "sales pitch". My intent was to share my experiences with using the TB grooming brush since it had not been mentioned in that thread up to the time I participated. Since that post that admonished me, there have been over 400 views of the thread but 0 new posts.
I'm interested in other viewpoints...
Jeff