This fall marked our third tournament appearance at Black Desert Resort as agronomy sponsors. The return trip underscored not only the beauty of this remarkable desert course but also the growing trust in FireFly’s precision turf robotics for elite golf course maintenance.
From Historic Beginnings to a Multi-Tournament Legacy
At the inaugural PGA TOUR event last October, Black Desert made history as the first professional tournament to maintain all fairways exclusively with robotic reel mowers. That pioneering effort demonstrated what the future of golf course agronomy could look like—quiet, precise, and fully electric. (Watch the “Behind-the-Scenes” video and read the article here.)
We were immediately invited to return for the resort’s LPGA Black Desert Championship in May. For that tournament, four FireFly Autonomous Mowing Platforms (AMPs) were again deployed to manicure the expansive fairways—over 50 acres—in the dark of night, this time producing a precise diamond pattern for the ladies.
Local news coverage of FireFly’s robot mowers at LPGA Black Desert Championship in May 2025
Following those successes, Reef Capital expanded their use of FireFly’s robotic reel mowers at their Virginia property, Cutalong at Tributer Resort. For this year’s Bank of Utah Championship, two Cutalong units were shipped cross-country to Southern Utah, and Reef’s Director of Agronomy, Ross Laubscher, invited FireFly back to provide two more machines as part of our sponsorship.
Our team arrived Sunday to get the robots ready for tournament week, checking in with Black Desert’s superintendent Ken Yates. To accommodate a few changes in the tournament infrastructure and rope layouts, we redefined some of the boundaries by manually driving the AMPs the perimeters of the affected holes. It didn’t take long to get the robots up and running for their daily mowing assignments.
Evening Operations for Championship Play
To complement tournament schedules, this time, the agronomy team opted to perform fairway mowing in the evenings after play concluded (the fairways were maintained in the early morning hours for the past two tournaments). Depending on when play wrapped up, the four AMPs were deployed between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m, finishing up in about four hours.
The robotic fairway mowers created stunning visual results, alternating striping patterns between north-south and east-west orientations for a crisp checkerboard finish. A challenging course for players and mowers alike, with narrow corridors framed by lava rock and undulating terrain, the AMPs handled it all with their usual reliability and finesse.
Our robotic reel mowers also caught the attention of the Golf Channel and PGA TOUR’s social media. On the evening of Round 1, with a stunning sunset setting off the red cliffs and the AMPs quietly cutting against a backdrop of green bentgrass and black lava rock, the sight captured everything that makes Black Desert so distinctive—and everything that makes precision turf robotics so compelling for the future of golf.
A Team Effort—On and Off the Turf
Visiting superintendents and volunteers carried out much of the monitoring of the units, gaining valuable hands-on experience with robotic turf management.
Hazen Patterson is a Golf Course Superintendent in Montana, and this was his second time volunteering with FireFly at Black Desert. When asked about the robots’ quality of cut, he said:
“The reels operate exactly like you would expect them to operate. You can change height-of-cut and…contact very easily—you can do that on the fly. You can backlap very easily. The machines are very easy to maintain.”
It was an honor to once again collaborate not only with the host agronomists, but also PGA TOUR competitions agronomist Blake Meentemeyer, whose expert precision and high standards elevated every aspect of tournament preparation. His guidance and partnership made for a smooth, rewarding week on the course.
And once again, we were impressed by the hard work and coordination by the whole agronomy crew behind the scenes, who worked together seamlessly to provide pristine course conditions every day of the event.
When asked what it was like having FireFly’s autonomous units for the crew, Jaren Affleck, Head Mechanic at Black Desert, said:
“It’s taken a huge load off my plate, making it so I can focus on other machines and not have to worry about fairway mowers.”
An Otherworldly Experience
You might wonder what it’s like to work with robotic mowers, and in the night in the Southern Utah desert. Matt Mutchler, one of the volunteers supervising a FireFly robot, remarked:
“Being out there in the middle of the night, it’s almost like being on a different planet out there. I feel like I’m on Mars or on the moon, sometimes. It’s pretty incredible.”
An assistant superintendent returning to volunteer from Montana, Matt added: “It’s a treat to get to do this every year…It’s super exciting for a turf nerd like me.”
Matt also commented on the experience working alongside an autonomous unit: “I’ve been running ’52’ this year..and we have a great rapport…We’re almost like friends now. I’m going to be sad when I have to leave on Sunday.”
@fireflyrobotguy The AMP-L100 mowing stripes in the dark at the Bank of Utah Championship this week. Quiet as a mouse.. #robot #turf #agronomy #golfmaintenance #fyp ♬ original sound – fireflyrobotguy
Responding to Customer Feedback
Benton Hodges, a superintendent from Wyoming volunteering for the event, is also a turf technology consultant. He commented:
“To see the thought that’s gone into the back end and the interface for the FireFly units, it definitely gives confidence that there’s been intentionality and thought behind what’s happening, and they’re listening to superintendents and the feedback.”
And even if Benton’s focus is on the turf tech, he’s also a trained botanist and agronomist, so it all comes down to the grass. “The bentgrass fairways are super tight, so if it wasn’t good, it would show, and I got down and looked, and the quality of cut was great.”
Benton said he was impressed by the combination of high quality results with the quiet of the electric units. “I think one of the coolest parts was hearing the PGA agronomist say, ‘No, you don’t need to stay two holes back [from play]; you can go one hole back because it’s so quiet…[That’s what] stuck out to me last night in this kind of pretty awesome desert solitude atmosphere, and it really didn’t sound like we were mowing fairways.”
Had the pleasure of running a @FireFlyAuto AMP Friday night of the Bank of Utah Championship.
Implementing robotics involves heavy logistics at any course, but a tournament setting comes with its own unique challenges.
I came away impressed by the machine, but the team behind… pic.twitter.com/TPlVlvw5Lu
— Benton Hodges (@BPHTurf) October 27, 2025
A Proven Solution for Championship Conditions
The Black Desert agronomy team continues to set a new bar for excellence, delivering world-class playing conditions with technology that not only turns heads, but eases the workload and worries of their staff. With robotic fairway mowers, there’s no concern over hydraulic spills or fuel leaks—just consistent, sustainable results.
With six professional golf tournaments successfully maintained using FireFly technology to date, our precision turf robotics have proven their reliability, quality, and ability to meet the sport’s most demanding standards. From Southern Utah and beyond, FireFly’s electric autonomous mowers are shaping the next generation of turf management—one championship at a time.
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