Every March, the world’s leading golfers gather in Florida for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and they compete on a course prepared with Jacobsen mowers.
Bay Hill Golf Club and Lodge’s Director of Grounds, Chris Flynn, has been at the club since September 2014 and in that time has seen Matt Every, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, and most recently Tyler Hatton triumph.
But regardless of who comes out on top, the third-generation superintendent knows that everyone in the field expects perfection, and he gives it to them using Jacobsen.
“Bay Hill has had such a longstanding and successful relationship with Jacobsen, and Mr. Palmer personally had a long relationship with Jacobsen, and any property he was affiliated with carried the Jacobsen name with it.
“The impact of Jacobsen on what we do here year-round and especially for tournament time is beyond critical.
“If Jacobsen makes it, then it’s probably here. 22inch walk mowers, 26inch walk mowers, the triplexes, I’m a fan of the GP400s, fairway mowers, AR3, AR5, AR7s – so yeah, I can’t really think of anything that Jacobsen makes that we don’t have here and use on a daily basis.
“The Arnold Palmer Invitational is certainly one of the most tenured tournaments on the PGA Tour, and expectations are perfection. For us, it’s quite the process to do the build and set-up, it’s about a two and a half month process, and it takes about that same amount of time to break that down.
“It requires additional support and equipment support, and the role Jacobsen plays in that is huge. Our mowing schedule ramps up. Mowing in the mornings and then mowing again in the afternoons, and that’s pretty much everything – tees, fairways, approaches, and greens.
“Obviously the equipment we need to rely on but then there’s the service side and having the support that we need with the equipment we have special tournament support. Having boots on the ground to help us and Jacobsen has always done an outstanding job in being there for us.
“The reliability has always been there, the reel technology is second to none, ease of maintenance and diagnosing issues when there are problems to making repairs to the ultimate use of the equipment and the quality of cut, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the assistance of Jacobsen.”
The latest edition of the tournament will be the 43rd played at Bay Hill since 1979, when it began life as the Bay Hill Citrus Classic. One hundred and twenty golfers will have the opportunity to receive the red cardigan sweater given to the winner in memory of Arnold Palmer, with twelve of the world’s top twenty-five ranked golfers among them.
