Campey Host Educational Tour

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Campey Host Educational Tour: Thirty-eight groundsmen from Denmark and Spain have spent three-days learning from some of the best turf professionals the United Kingdom has to offer on a Campey Turf Care Systems educational tour.

The trip was arranged by Thomas Jorgensen, chairman of the Groundsman Association of Denmark, Campey’s Danish dealer, Havdrup Maskinforretning and Spanish dealer Deltacinco. The emphasis of the tour was to learn from experienced groundsmen while looking at the technology they are using.

Campey Host Educational Tour

Typically, Danish groundsmen operate on lower budgets compared to their UK counterparts, and this was taken into consideration when picking venues with Salford City Reds and Newcastle Under Lyme Football Club both chosen to show that high-quality surfaces can be achieved with a smaller budget.

The 38 strong group also visited leading venues such as Arsenal’s London Colney training centre, Liverpool Football Club, Stoke City Football Club, Tottenham Hotspur’s Enfield Training Ground and the brand-new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where head of playing surfaces and estates, Darren Baldwin, gave up his time to give the group a tour of the stunning new facility and answer questions from the groundsmen. Thomas thinks everyone on the trip has benefitted from getting to interact with the groundsmen from each club while seeing the pitches they produce.

He said: “I thought the variety of venues we visited was excellent, we saw the top of it all in terms of stadium, but we also experienced some more down-to-earth facilities that we can better relate to, but it is important to experience both on such a trip.

Campey Host Educational Tour

“It is very important to be able to learn from others in the industry who have experiences that we don’t yet have ourselves. The English football pitches are on a different level to Denmark, so the experience is important. However, we must remember that the money is also different in England.

“For me, the experience was absolutely great. We visited Steve Braddock at Arsenal. He is simply fantastic and has tremendous knowledge, he gained great respect throughout our group.”

As well as talks from leading figures in the industry, the group also saw a grassroots renovation in action at Newcastle Under Lyme FC and had the chance to view machines at Campey HQ and have an evening barbecue.

Campey Host Educational Tour

Campey has always focused on providing education to further the knowledge of those in the industry and is delighted to continue their support of groundsmen abroad.

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New Toro For Newlands Holidays

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New Toro For Newlands Holidays: Newlands Holidays, a family-run caravan park, has recently invested in a Toro Groundsmaster 3500-D to help maintain its 23 acres of landscaped grounds and keep customers happy and coming back.

Situated near the World Heritage village of Charmouth in Dorset and a short walk away from the stunning Jurassic Coast, Newlands Holidays is a popular vacation destination. As such, maintaining the grounds to a high standard is vital says business partner, Rex Ireland.

New Toro For Newlands Holidays

“The appearance of the park is of the utmost importance for our business,” says Rex. “It’s a significant factor in customers choosing to holiday here and it’s essential the park looks its best. That’s a major factor in keeping our customers happy and coming back.”

With that in mind, Rex was in the market for a reliable machine which could easily cope with the undulating terrain, bank cutting and general maintenance cutting around the 23-acre site.

Having briefed his local dealer on his requirements, Devon Garden Machinery brought in the Toro Groundsmaster 3500-D, amongst many, to trial and despite tough competition the GM3500-D’s performance won in the end.

“The performance of the Toro machine was just great compared to the other brands,” says Rex. “It did really well on the banks which was very important as we have a fair amount of undulating terrain. Overall, the GM3500-D showed itself to be a really reliable machine and since it will be used for the bulk of the work here, that was really important. It was clear it would provide the best fit for us.”

The combination of the machine’s ground-following design of each free-floating contour cutting deck and the unique parallel traction drive system means it can tackle the most challenging of terrain in all weathers without scalping. As a triplex rotary mower, the GM3500-D has the added benefit of producing the quality trimming you’d expect from a reel mower as well as the easy maintenance of a rotary mower, something which proved to be a key consideration for Rex.

“We’ve had cylinder mowers before, but they’ve proved to be quite high maintenance,” Rex continues. “With the GM3500-D we’ve been able to move away from that and I can already see that it’s going to save us a lot of time on maintenance.”

“When it came to finding a new machine, Devon Garden Machinery provided us with a range of options and simply put, we chose the best,” Rex concludes. “From Toro, we’ve got a good machine that does the job well and will make sure we’re in the best position for the start of the season.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Capillary Concrete & EcoBunker At Ryder Cup Venue

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Capillary Concrete & EcoBunker At Ryder Cup Venue: The first phase of construction work has been completed on the rebuild of the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club course outside Rome, the venue for the 2022 Ryder Cup. This phase has seen the back nine of the golf course reconstructed, and the holes are now growing in. The front nine is to be rebuilt at a later date.

The construction crew provided by contractor SOL Golf, finished its work at the end of May. For the last three weeks of work, a specialist subcontract team from EcoBunker was on site installing about 500 metres of the company’s AquaEdge lake edging product on two separate ponds, one on the left of the home green, and the other to the front right of the sixteenth, with logistic and labour support from SOL. EcoBunker CEO Richard Allen, the creator of AquaEdge, says: “Dave Sampson, the course architect from European Golf Design, wanted to make the sixteenth into a feature hole, as he knows that more Ryder Cup matches end at the sixteenth than anywhere else. It’s a pretty drivable par four, downhill, with a huge spectator area around the green.”

Capillary Concrete & EcoBunker At Ryder Cup Venue

The bunkers of the back nine are shaped, but are planned to be finished in September, when they will be lined with the Capillary Concrete system and then filled with sand. Sampson himself specified Capillary Concrete for the course’s bunkers, having seen its performance elsewhere – including at Le Golf National in Paris, host to the recent 2018 Ryder Cup.

“The first phase of bunker works amounts to about 5,000 sq m of Capillary Concrete,” said the company’s European representative Kneale Diamond. “Construction of the second nine is expected to start as soon as the first nine holes are open – and to be finished by next May.”

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New Importer For Energreen Units

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New Importer For Energreen Units: Stuart Taylor International is delighted to announce the official appointment of UK importers for the renowned Energreen remote controlled power units, previously marketed in the UK under the McConnel brand.

The range consists of four different machines the RoboECO, RoboGREEN evo, RoboMAX and RoboPower. These models have been developed to offer customers different solutions in order to address different needs of work and equipping themselves with a wide range of attachments designed to be implemented and managed by these machines.

New UK Importer For Energreen Units

All machines are designed to be used in a variety of areas including slopes, land difficult to reach, swampy areas and forestry conditions whilst making the operators safety paramount.

Stuart Taylor International will be covering the Northern half of the UK and are now offering the full range of pre and post sales services on the Energreen Robo range and attachments. This also includes post sales services on the previously McConnel branded Energreen machines and attachments.

If you would like to discuss the Energreen range of machines and how they can help your business, please contact us on 01254 813175.

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Carbon Gold Success At Mullion GC

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Carbon Gold Success At Mullion GC: With more and more chemical fungicides getting banned, how can Greenkeepers keep their turf healthy?  A chance encounter at the 2018 BTME conference in Harrogate led Mullion Golf Club to the answer…  

Mullion Golf Club is the most southernly course in the country, just a few miles north of Lizard Point in Cornwall.  Being right on the coast, it’s under constant barrage from the Atlantic winds and, as such, often suffers salt damage, irrigation issues and disease outbreaks, particularly on the 14th green which is considered the club’s problematic green, sited on a cliff and constantly being awashed with salty air from the Atlantic Ocean. The green was built with a fine sand and has always struggled to get good rooting.   

Carbon Gold Success At Mullion GC

Head Greenkeeper, Gordon Tamblyn, happened upon Carbon Gold’s enriched biochar Turf Improver at the Sherriff Amenity stand at the BIGGA’s annual exhibition BTME at the start of 2018 and was intrigued. 

Biochar is a high-carbon, purified form of charcoal that improves the structure, aeration and water-holding capacity of soil.  Its chemical stability means it doesn’t break down, making it a one-time application, and its porous structure provides a permanent refuge for beneficial microbiology.  

Carbon Gold’s biochar is enriched with mycorrhizae, Trichoderma, seaweed and wormcasts and has been shown to improve the health and vitality of turf, improve grass rooting, reduce irrigation costs, eliminate the need for fungicides and dramatically reduce the need to put down fertiliser in trials by Sherriff Amenity.  

In March, during the Clubs greens renovations, Mullion’s 14th green had been hollow-tined ready to have Carbon Gold’s enriched biochar Turf Improver swept into the Rootzone.   

“I was intrigued by Carbon Gold’s Turf Improver because the science around biology made a lot of intuitive sense and the trial results were impressive, plus the fact that it reduces costs and is a one-time application, it was definitely worth a shot.  I’m always looking for new ways of improving soil structure, preventing disease and promoting the Fescue grasses, due to the nature of our environment at Mullion owing to how exposed to the elements we are.” 

Gordon Tamblyn, Head Green Keeper, Mullion Golf Club 

The biochar was used in conjunction with mycorrhizae inoculants and, eight months on, despite an outbreak of Fusarium this Autumn, the 14th green is completely disease free, the grass is showing better rooting, feels firmer and is looking much healthier.  

“I’m really impressed by the fact that our biggest problem-green is a lot healthier, firmer and is disease free.  And the rooting is impressive, I noticed there’s absolutely no break-off when changing holes.” 

Gordon Tamblyn, Head Green Keeper, Mullion Golf Club 

As a result of the trial, Gordon is applying Turf Improver to its putting green and would like to incorporate it to the rest of the course, permanently improving the health of Mullion Golf Club’s turf. 

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