The former Highlands GC in Hutchinson, Kan., is being reborn as the Crazy Horse Sport Club and Golf Course, and three new members of the grounds “staff” are tackling weed management on the property with gusto. “They love the weeds, especially the poison ivy,” says General Manager Matt Seitz. “It’s like candy to them.”
Among changes underway at the former Highlands Golf Club north of Hutchinson, Kan., reported the Hutchinson News, is a different approach that the new owner is taking to weed management for the property’s 44-year-old golf course.
Goats brought in by Jon Mollhagen, a rancher and businessman who bought the course earlier this year and reopened it as the Crazy Horse Sport Club and Golf Course, are tackling that task with gusto, the News reported.
“They love the weeds,” said Matt Seitz, the new club’s General Manager. “Especially the poison ivy. I saw them running along and they just stopped and started gobbling it up. It’s like candy to them.”
Mollhagen obtained the three female animals from a friend, said Seitz, who did not know their breed.
“This a good way of controlling the weeds without chemicals,” Seitz told the News. “We used to spray it, but it’s hard to control, and we’d rather do it without all the herbicides and stuff.”
Besides, Seitz added, “They’re good at getting people talking. It’s something new.”
The club’s staff moves the animals around the course on 30-foot tethers, the News reported, to target certain areas while making sure they are not free just to run around the grounds.
“We keep them off the fairways and the greens,” Seitz said. “They’re just in the deep rough.”
Golfers, however, are free to pet or otherwise interact with the small animals, he added.
“They are really social,” Seitz said. “They love people. They will come up to you and rub against you. They want to be petted. I thought they might be a little cantankerous, but not these gals. They don’t bite, though I did have one try to chew on my pant leg.”
The course has set up a shelter near a small pond were the goats go at night, the News reported.
The goats don’t each much grass, Seitz said, just the weeds. They are also supplementing their diet with alfalfa pellets.
While apparently unique for courses in Kansas, Mollhagen did not invent the idea, Seitz said.
“They use them in Scotland, and at Whistling Straits [the 36-hole course in Sheboygan, Wis. that has hosted major championships], they have four or five goats,” he said.
“Right now it’s just an experiment,” Seitz added. “If it pans out, if we like what they’re doing and people like them, we may get more if needed. If they’re too much of a problem or maintenance concern, they may go back to their previous life.”
Other changes at the golf course as it is revived, the News reported, involve the clubhouse, which is now under remodeling, and landscaping. “We’re cutting out some trees, opening up the course, so people can see more of the sand hills and to get the grass to grow,” Seitz said.
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