If a reflected red light catches your eye while wandering Portarlington’s fairways in coming months, don’t panic.

Chances are it’s just the glint off the club’s latest addition to the maintenance shed, the spanking new Toro 3500 triplex rotary mower whipping around the course.
Superintendent Steve Burchett said the fine-cut rough mower joined the fleet this month and was working far more efficiently than its predecessor.

“It cuts the edges of fairways and mounding in particular … just generally for rough that is of a finer variety than the heavy stuff,” Burchett said.
“It floats over mounds and allows us to cut slopes and mounding without scalping them –that’s the critical thing.
“It makes things much better visually for golfers.
“It’s working well and doing exactly what we wanted it to do. The other one was essentially the same technology, but 15 years old and with nearly 3000 hours on it.
“It had no reverse gear, was very difficult to use and had no operating comfort at all, so all the boys are pretty happy to have it.”

The new machine comes with a $55,000 price tag, but is on a lease plan.

“We’re developing more machinery under lease; we have five machines under lease now,” Burchett said.