Friday, March 8, 2013

A Mechanic's Best Friend; The Digital Height of Cut Gauge

If you ask any golf course mechanic they will tell you that this trusty tool is worth its weight in gold. It's called the Digital Height of Cut Gauge. It aids in adjusting the height of cut of reel mowers by one-one thousandth of an inch. That's one quarter the thickness of a piece of paper!

We use Toro reel mowers at the University of Michigan Golf Course to mow our Greens, Tees, Fairways, Approaches and Collars. The height of cut is adjusted throughout the golf season for many different reasons: climate conditions, time of year, type of play (tournaments or daily play), or to simply improve the overall health of the turf.

To give you an idea, a residential mower used for home lawns is normally set at a height of 2.5 inches. Our greens are mowed between 0.090-0.130 of an inch and our tees, fairways and approaches are mowed between 0.400-0.600 of an inch.

Several times a week we check and adjust the height of cut of our mowers. We do this to ensure consistency from mower to mower and to create the best possible playing conditions for our golfers. If you ever see us out on the golf course feel free to ask, "What's the height of cut?"