Superintendents Glen Misiaszek, Jim Phelps and Jon Spence have at least one thing in common: They’re not John Deere equipment customers. But the manufacturer hopes to change that with its Feedback event, held at the company’s headquarters in Moline, Ill., last month. The event is partly aimed at luring those potential customers in to the John Deere golf family, which began in 1987.
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For the Feedback event – which started in 1992, although it hasn’t occurred every year since then – John Deere invited about 400 customers and potential customers to demo prototypes and provide the company with input about mowers, sprayers and irrigation systems. Regarding mowers, the manufacturer asked for specific input about blade configuration, grass catchers, maneuverability and after-cut appearance. Input about reel-to-bedknife design, an auto track system and brush drives on the rollers also was requested.
Misiaszek, a certified golf course superintendent at the private Cohasset (Mass.) Golf Club, maintains the 18-hole course with a $1.1 million budget. Misiaszek, who has been at Cohasset for five years, reports to the club’s green committee, which approves an amount he can spend on equipment, among other maintenance-related items. He lets the committee know what he needs, then approaches the finance committee, which approves or disapproves his recommendations. Misiaszek’s recommendations are almost always approved, he says.
At Cohasset, fairway mowers last between eight and 10 years. The oldest one is 11 years old.
“We’re predominately Jake, with a couple Toro mowers,” Misiaszek says about his fleet. “I’m predominately Jake not because of loyalty, but because of what I think is the best mower.”
Misiaszek inherited some equipment, which was purchased, not leased: two sprayers, five greensmowers, a tee mower, a collar mower, an apron mower and a fairway unit. He also inherited a dump truck and grinders. Misiaszek spends between $100,000 and $150,000 a year on new equipment, but none of that, except for one tractor, is colored green.
“Deere is trying to get in the door at Cohasset, and we’re going to purchase a lot in the next few years,” he says.
Because of that, Misiaszek wants to know more about John Deere’s equipment. His old area sales rep is now an agronomic consultant for Deere who has opened the door to the company. Misiaszek says the Feedback event will influence him when it’s time to purchase his next mowers.
“I see value in John Deere doing this,” he says. “They’re supporting golf and superintendents. It’s difficult to get to the people who can make the changes on the mowers. Here, it’s great because were talking to the engineers. I’m really considering purchasing a John Deere rough unit.”
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Misiaszek has always had a mix of orange, green and red equipment. Although he thought the reels on the older John Deere fairway mowers were too heavy, he recognizes the changes the company has made.
Phelps, superintendent at Gateway Golf & Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., maintains the course with a $1.6 million budget and an annual $200,000 capital expenditure budget. Phelps, who has been a superintendent for 10 years and has been at Gateway for four and a half, uses primarily Toro equipment. He has one Kubota tractor.
Presently, Gateway is leasing, but the club is considering purchasing some equipment, such as tractors and aerifiers. Generally, Phelps leases greens, tee and fairway mowers and purchases equipment such as rough mowers and other equipment that isn’t used as often as greens, tee and fairway mowers.
“We want to stay with the most current technology,” he says. “After three years, we lease new mowers.”
Gateway’s board of governors has the power to override Phelps decisions, but it hasn’t since he’s been there.
“They lean on me heavily and depend on me to make the right choices,” he says.
Phelps’s choice of Toro mowers is based on two factors: He cut his teeth on the brand, and, in his area of Florida, Toro has been exceptional with its service and parts availability.
“That’s very important,” he says.
Some of Gateway’s equipment is ready to expire, and Phelps will have a purchasing choice to make soon.
“I will do due diligence with competitors Jake and John Deere,” he says. “Competition is a good thing. The owner of the John Deere distributor down here came out to the course to show me the turf equipment, and I was impressed with that. He explained the company had come a long way since the 1980s, when they first entered the golf market. They’re more aggressive with pricing and have better equipment.”
Phelps demoed some John Deere equipment, and the sales guy asked him if he was interested in attending the Feedback event.
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“I was impressed with Feedback,” he says. “John Deere is a well-run organization. They have a heart to do the right thing. They listened intently to what we talked about. One of the great things about Feedback was that there was never a time where they sat us down for a sales pitch. That’s pretty neat.”
Because Gateway is building a new maintenance facility, Phelps has to stage equipment and offices elsewhere. This situation lead Phelps to roll over the leased equipment for one more year, until the middle of ’09, because he didn’t want new equipment sitting out in the parking lot unprotected.
However, Phelps is in the process of buying one, maybe two, sprayers from John Deere, and the Feedback event cemented his decision to by a John Deere sprayer. Deere also is in the mix for rough mowers and leased mowers, too, Phelps says.
Spence, superintendent at Spring Hill College Golf Course in Mobile, Ala., maintains the course with a $450,000 budget. Spence, who has been at the 18-hole public course since 2002, has no capital expenditure budget, but the profit from the previous year, which is usually about $70,000, is used for capital purchases.
During the purchasing process, Spence doesn’t go through a bid process, but he asks each of the big three equipment manufacturers to send him pricing. Although he doesn’t have to go with the lowest price, he says it’s a significant factor in his decision, which is why he went with a Jacobsen lease package in 2005. The $300,000 package included:
- 2 greensmowers
- 2 fairway mowers
- 2 tee mowers
- 1 greens roller
- 1 sprayer
- 1 utility vehicle
- 2 utility carts
- 1 triplex rough mower
- 2 rotary deck mowers.
The lease will end in the fall of 2009, but Spence hasn’t determined what equipment he’ll lease then.
Spence was invited to the Feedback event through his John Deere sales rep on the irrigation side. Spence purchased the company’s eAurora irrigation control system last year and was interested to learn more about the manufacturer’s equipment. He has been getting pressure from the college to run a more environmentally friendly operation. As such, he likes John Deere’s electric greensmower. He, too, thought the Feedback event was well done.
“I liked that their engineers were around,” he says. “But it would be a bit better if we could bring our equipment technicians so John Deere could get more technical feedback from them. I’m more concerned about how easy it is to work on the equipment in the shop and how it performs than how easy it is to operate.”
Even though Spence hasn’t made a decision about which equipment package to lease, he says the Feedback event is making him lean toward John Deere.
“It’s about service, too,” he says. “Our John Deere reps in the area seem to be a cut above the rest.” GCI