Scorecard Maps: Ranking Holes for Robot Mower Priority

Which holes should a robot mower take first?

Give the robot the holes where crew minutes pile up fastest, where players cross the mowing corridor least often, and where the ground is simple enough to cut cleanly. A scorecard map ranks a club's holes against those three tests. It needs no special software. A printed sheet, a stopwatch and a week of tee sheet counts will produce a defensible first ranking.

Score each hole from one to five on three measures: mower time, traffic conflict and terrain fit. Add the mower time score and the terrain fit score, then add six minus the traffic score. The highest total goes first. When two holes tie, the quieter hole goes first, because a low traffic hole gives a cleaner read during the first weeks of running.

Why rank holes instead of mowing by feel?

Crews usually know which holes are slow, but feel tends to favor the holes that look best on a broadcast rather than the holes that eat the most hours. A sheet puts every hole on the same numbers, and it gives a board or green committee something concrete to read.

Labor pressure makes the exercise worth the effort. According to USGA, citing a GCSAA figure from its 2024 Maintenance Budget Survey, golf course labor expenditures rose about 17 percent from 2022 to 2024. When a club cannot add crew, the question becomes which hours a machine can take without touching quality.

Other clubs are already testing the approach. According to The Golf Wire, citing a March 2026 release, Concert Golf Partners adopted FireFly's electric autonomous fairway mowing platform and is described as among the first in the private club industry to do so. Golf Business News reported that 16 CEORA units were deployed on the Brabazon Course during the 2026 Husqvarna British Masters at The Belfry.

What goes on the scoring sheet?

Use one row per hole and three scored columns, plus a notes column. Write the scale anchors on the sheet itself, so two people scoring the same hole land close to the same number.

The notes column matters more than it looks. It catches what a number cannot, such as a tree line that shifts after storms, or a green that sits close enough to the corridor to need a hold.

• Mower time: estimated crew minutes spent cutting the hole in a typical week. A five means the hole consumes the most minutes on the course.
• Traffic conflict: average players and carts crossing the mowing corridor during the hours a robot would run. A five means heavy crossings that cannot be scheduled around.
• Terrain fit: slope, obstacles, edge complexity and proximity to water. A five means a flat, open hole with clean edges.

How do you measure mower time and traffic without guessing?

Time one full crew cut on each hole, then count the passes, turns and edge trims that go with it. Multiply by how often the hole is cut each week. Crew run logs and timecards are the cleanest source if the club keeps them. If not, a few supervised cuts with a watch give a usable ranking figure, though not a precise budget number.

For traffic, count players and carts on the corridor during the hours a robot would run, and use the tee sheet for context. Two or three days of counts on a busy weekend and a quiet weekday will show whether a hole is truly congested or only busy at one hour. Avoid scoring a hole on a single bad Saturday.

Where does terrain fit change the ranking?

Terrain fit is the score most able to overturn the list. Toro's product page for its GeoLink autonomous fairway mower flags severe slopes and obstacles such as cliffs, ravines or public roads. A hole with any of those features should drop down the list even if its mower time is high, because a hard setup can erase the hours the robot was meant to save.

Edges and bunker surrounds usually still need a crew's hands, so score each hole on the work that remains after the robot passes, not on total cutting time alone. Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Colorado hosted a beta GeoLink unit, and according to Toro's product page its superintendent found the mower worked best as supplemental support on fairways. That is a useful frame: the robot earns its place on holes where it removes repeat work.

Remote monitoring belongs in the same picture. Toro says superintendents can control the mower from anywhere on the course, so a hole with clear sightlines from the maintenance building is simpler to supervise during the first weeks.

How do you run the three hole starting test?

Take the top three holes, but choose them so they differ in traffic. One quiet hole, one moderate hole and one busy hole that still scores well gives a fair read on conflicts. Put the same three holes on the schedule in the same window each week, so the run logs can be compared directly.

Record each run: start and finish times, interruptions, player holds, edge work the crew still had to do, and a cut quality check at the end. The test answers two questions. Does the robot take real minutes off the crew, and does it hold up with players on the course? If both answers are yes, add holes in score order. If either answer is no, fix the lowest scoring measure before expanding the map.

Where does Service Robot Co. fit in?

Service Robot Co. is an OEM-neutral integrator for US businesses. We work through leasing, so the conversation begins with a lease rather than a catalog. We pick the right unit across manufacturers for the holes on your scorecard, then quote one fixed robot lease payment on a three year lease after a site assessment.

Deployment, integration, training and service run through RoboCare, our service plan, backed by regional service engineers in every state we service. One partner handles the whole lifecycle instead of several vendors, which matters when a mower stops in the middle of a morning window. Bring the finished scorecard to that assessment, so the lease quote is built on the holes you actually need covered.

How often should the scorecard be rescored?

Rescore after any change that moves mower time or traffic: aerification, overseeding windows, tree work, storm damage, a new tee or cart path, or a shift in member play. The same sheet can then show whether the ranking moved.

Keep the earlier sheets. A hole that stays near the top across two rescoring cycles is a strong candidate to keep on robot duty, and the record of how holes ranked before and after a change is the clearest evidence a board can review when deciding on the next season's mowing hours.