Okehampton GC Sign Sherriff Deal

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Okehampton GC Sign Sherriff Deal: Devon’s Okehampton Golf Club have signed a new deal which sees Sherriff Amenity as its preferred supplier of products for a period of three years.

Okehampton Golf Club features an 18 hole parkland course, sheltered by the highest tors of Dartmoor, on the northern edge of Devon’s magnificent National Park. It is a challenging course and can be deceptive if the wind is blowing – especially on the 12th hole where the West Okement River awaits to the left and behind the green.

Okehampton GC Sign Sherriff Deal

Stuart Entwistle has been the course manager at Okehampton for just over four years and is pleased with the progress he has made in that time.

“I used to work at a large club but was quite restricted in trying new methods and products. However, once I came here I had a free reign to trial a number of new products. I personally feel there has been a big improvement to the course. My main goal to start with was to be able to offer golf all-year round and we have already achieved that.”

Stuart initially focused his attentions on the tees and after a recommendation from Sherriff Amenity’s David Chammings, he turned to Evolution Xtra 24.4.4 granular fertiliser for the summer and then Evolution Controlled 18.0.32 in the winter.

“I would say that the majority of our members have said that the biggest improvement here has been on the tees,” said Stuart. “When I first arrived the tees just looked tired and weak so they needed immediate attention. I went with an initial application of the Evolution Xtra 24.4.4 at a rate of 30g/m² in the middle of March. It gave me a great initial hit and I applied it twice more in that first year.

“This really worked in getting them in a better condition and for the second year we went with two more applications of the 24.4.4 but then for winter we went with the six month release fertiliser – Evolution Controlled, which was the perfect feed to see us through. The growth was steady and strong – exactly what we needed.

Okehampton GC Sign Sherriff Deal

“The other good thing about Evolution Controlled is that it is chloride free so it has a low scorching index. Therefore, I can put it down and not worry about the scorch, which was one of my concerns at first because we don’t have any irrigation on the tees.”

For the greens at Okehampton, Stuart claims that he just wouldn’t be without Sherriff Amenity’s GoGreen Energy – a concentrated bio-stimulant, formulated to assist plant health and relieve stress symptoms.

“GoGreen Energy works really well for us – we go through the summer with it at four weekly intervals at the full rate of 60 l/ha. Before we started using the product, the greens were starting to yellow and were a bit stressed but now they are a beautiful green colour and it has really helped with root depth.

“We have tried a number of similar products in the past but GoGreen is the one we have consistently stuck with. I honestly believe that if we didn’t use it for one summer then we would notice the difference.

“It’s a nice low nitrogen product, contains simple sugars, a bit of chelated iron, has a bit of seaweed in it and is a complete trace element package – but not too much of one thing and that’s what we want. It just gives you a nice steady pattern.”

For further information, please contact Sherriff Amenity on 01638 721 888 or visit www.sherriffamenity.com

For more news and insightful views, you can follow Sherriff Amenity on Twitter @SherriffAmenity.

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Groundsman Reveals Cricket Challenges

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Groundsman Reveals Cricket Challenges: Gary Barwell, the head groundsman at Edgbaston, has done well to stay chipper as he prepares the pitch for the second of the World Cup semi-finals on Thursday.

Unseasonal bad weather almost scuppered the venue’s first match – between New Zealand and South Africa – before Virat Kohli bizarrely complained about a short boundary after India lost there to England. Throughout it all was an ill-informed debate about covering the whole of the outfield between matches because of the rain.

Groundsman Reveals Cricket Challenges

Not for the first time, every armchair expert in world cricket had a view on the notoriously elusive art of groundsmanship.

‘The week leading up to the first game was my hardest ever,’ says the 43-year-old Barwell, who also worked on the 1999 World Cup while he was at Leicestershire’s Grace Road.

‘We couldn’t get the hover cover off because of the rain. There was 200 per cent more rainfall in a month than usual. At one point, we weren’t sure if we’d get the pitch ready. It was tough, but it was tough for Old Trafford and Headingley too.’

There will be no complaints about short boundaries on Thursday: the game will take place on pitch No 12 in a square containing 24 – though Kohli might have been better off reflecting on India’s faulty decision to play two spinners to England’s one.

But Barwell’s only loyalty is towards the quality of the surface, prepared under the hands-off guidance of the ICC’s pitch consultant Andy Atkinson.

‘You want a fair contest,’ he told the Mail on Sunday. ‘It should be flatter than for a five-day Test, but with a bit of carry for the bowlers. For New Zealand vs South Africa, it wasn’t a bad pitch, but it was a bit slow. England vs India was totally different. People said it would rag square at Edgbaston, but it didn’t.

‘One of the nice things at Edgbaston is we’ve got some good hundreds in every game. Kane Williamson was outstanding against South Africa, and Babar Azam against New Zealand. Then there was Jonny Bairstow.’

One or two conspiracy theorists maintain that groundsmen at ICC events are under order to produce a certain type of pitch – often to suit the home side. But Barwell insists there are ‘no instructions’.

He adds: ‘You want to produce the best pitch you can for the competition. England vs India was the same pitch you’d want for a bilateral series.

‘If everything goes in the right direction, including the weather, Thursday’s pitch will be a typical one-day pitch that we’ve had at Edgbaston over the past four or five years.

‘And it will be right in the middle of the square, so there’ll be no short boundaries. It will be fair to both teams. We’ll always try to give both teams a fair chance, so I can look myself in the face and prepare the pitch as if it’s Warwickshire vs Durham in the Royal London Cup, or T20 finals day, or England vs India in a bilateral series.

‘With the weather at the start of the tournament, there’s been a lot of pressure on head groundsmen. What we really want to get is good pitches for every game we play. We want people coming through the door to say they had a good day. I don’t want the pitch to be the cause of anything.’

Now to keep an anxious eye on the forecast.

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Doosan Bobcat EMEA Announces New Changes

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Doosan Bobcat EMEA Announces New Changes: Doosan Bobcat, a global leader in the compact equipment industry has announced new presidents and other organizational changes in the global structure of the company.

The changes have been announced as the company works across all regions to fully integrate and leverage the strength and scale of the business around the world, whilst maintaining the focus on customer centric solutions and further expanding and refining the company’s full liner strategy. As a result, Doosan Bobcat has announced the appointment of new regional presidents and a different global organization and leadership structure, including newly created global groups responsible for engineering, procurement and strategy.

Doosan Bobcat EMEA Announces New Changes

Consistent with these changes, Doosan Bobcat has announced the following leadership appointments, effective immediately:

  • Gustavo Otero has been appointed president, Doosan Bobcat Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Otero previously served as vice president of Compact & Telehandlers, Doosan Bobcat EMEA. Otero will be based out of Doosan Bobcat’s EMEA headquarters in Dobris in the Czech Republic.
  • Mike Ballweber has been appointed president, Doosan Bobcat North America. Ballweber previously served as senior vice president, Commercial Business, Doosan Bobcat North America.
  • Alvaro Pacini has been named senior vice president, Global Procurement, Doosan Bobcat. Pacini previously served as EMEA region president.
  • Troy Kraft has been appointed senior vice president, Global Engineering, Doosan Bobcat.
  • Youngmin Kwon has been named senior vice president, Global Strategy & Operational Excellence/Total Quality Management.

All the executives named above will report directly to Doosan Bobcat CEO, Scott Park.

“As a global company, we are taking these steps to become even more collaborative by sharing the best ideas and innovations around the world,” said Park. “I have great confidence in each of these leaders as they take on new and expanded roles and look forward to working with them to ensure our continued growth in the global marketplace.”

New Doosan Bobcat EMEA president named

Gustavo Otero has been named president for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA). Otero joined Doosan Bobcat in 2012 and most recently served as EMEA region vice president of Compact and Telehandlers. Prior to this, he was vice president of Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment EMEA and served as general manager at Geith and has an extensive 20-year background in the global construction equipment and automotive industries.

Otero earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering at Universidade de Vigo, an executive MBA from IESIDE Business Institute and a PDD from IESE Business School Universidad de Navarra.

Gustavo Otero commented: “I look forward to working with our global function teams, leaders and dealer network to further position us for long term growth and bring enhanced collaboration and innovations. I believe that the expanded global organizational structure will assist us in reaching new levels of success in EMEA and reinforce our position as the global leader in compact equipment to bring the best value to our customers.”

Global function leadership team

As a part of this initiative, Doosan Bobcat has announced additional senior leadership roles to lead the expanded global structure and help enhance and streamline the company’s focus on engineering, procurement and strategy globally. These global teams are designed to encourage collaboration, agility and drive innovation and growth strategies.

Alvaro Pacini has been appointed senior vice president, Global Procurement. He is responsible for global procurement functions including regional governance and commodity strategic management. He joined Doosan Bobcat in 2011 and most recently served as region president of Doosan Bobcat EMEA. Pacini has an extensive, 30-year background in the construction equipment and automotive industries, including experience in operations, strategy, sourcing, supply chain and total quality management.

Troy Kraft, named senior vice president of Global Engineering, has led engineering for Doosan Bobcat North America for nearly 12 years. He has been appointed to join the global leadership team and is responsible for global compact equipment product development, product safety and international standards.

“We are extremely pleased to have Troy and Alvaro lead the global engineering and procurement function teams,” said Scott Park. “They bring unique skills and professional insights that will enhance our global executive team, from their in-depth industry experience to technical leadership and impressive management capabilities.”

Kraft and Pacini join Youngmin Kwon, senior vice president, Global Strategy & Operational Excellence/Total Quality Management, as members of the Doosan Bobcat global function leadership team.

“Our new global structure and leadership team will encourage greater collaboration and agility throughout the company’s worldwide regions,” said Park. “Together, we will work more closely as one global team, which will bring enhanced collaboration, innovation and continued success for Doosan Bobcat.”

For more information about Bobcat and Bobcat products, visit www.bobcat.com

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Charterhouse Double At Beedles Lakes

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Charterhouse Double At Beedles Lakes: A Rink DS800 from Charterhouse Turf Machinery is helping to make light work of topdressing the 27 greens of Leicestershire’s Beedles Lakes Golf Club. This, together with a Verti-Drain® 7316 are the latest tools in the armoury of Head Greenkeeper Sam Shuttlewood, who is delighted with the versatility he now has at his disposal for the tasks of topdressing and course-wide aeration.

Time is of the essence for Sam and his team of six, with an 18-hole parkland course and 9-hole par 3 to maintain, along with a 16-bay driving range and 32-acre fishing lake. “Topdressing was one of those tasks we wanted to carry out more frequently, but the drop dresser we had would only cover a small area per pass meaning that we would have to go over each green 10 or 15 times to get adequate coverage. Not only that, but it would fit on the back of one of our Gator’s which meant we would have to unmount our sprayer from the back each time we wanted to go out – all of this made it a time-consuming task.”

Charterhouse Double At Beedles Lakes

The Rink DS800, in trailed form, immediately impressed Sam on his demonstration with local dealer Platts Harris. “The beauty of the Rink was that you simply hitched it on the tractor, plugged in the hydraulics and you were on your way. It was quick and easy to set-up and, unlike a lot of machinery these days, didn’t feature an unnecessary amount of technology needed to complete the task at hand!”

“Another reason we went for the Rink was the fact it is a disc-spreader which will enable us to conduct more frequent light dressings and, thanks to it’s impressive spreading width, we can cover a whole green in two or three passes.” Toward the smaller end of the Rink Disc Spreader range, the DS800 has a 0.8m3 hopper and is highly adjustable, offering a spreading width of up to 12m and a thickness of up to 15mm. It is available in both a trailed or mounted option.

With the Rink bringing new flexibility to topdressing, Sam’s other purchase made in May 2019 was a Verti-Drain® 7316.“This will be a true multi-purpose aerator that we can use on greens, tees, approaches and fairways thanks to the range of tine options available.” He concluded, “On the day of the demonstrations the decision was easy – we saw two machines, we loved two machines, so we bought two machines!”

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John Deere & CMAE Organise Workshops

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John Deere & CMAE Organise Workshops: The recently formed Club Managers Association of Europe – Middle East & North Africa Region (CMAE MENA) has held its first club education seminars under the title ‘Building confidence in communication’, to train golf course and other managers for new challenges. John Deere supported this initiative by bringing in communication expert Bill McFarlan to deliver several seminars earlier this year.

Bill McFarlan has a passion for helping people build their confidence in communication, having been a broadcaster for 25 years with some of Britain’s top radio and TV stations. Sharing what he’s learned from broadcasting and business, he helps create and deliver passionate presentations on how to conduct interviews confidently with the media and at work.

John Deere & CMAE Organise Workshops

As clubs are becoming bigger, more diverse and more demanding, communication skills are more than ever a key requirement for managers at all levels. Using practical workshops, Bill McFarlan shared top tips and techniques on how to be relevant to any audience, deal with complaints and arguments, and recover difficult situations. The workshops were held at Education City Golf Club in Qatar, Al Mouj Golf Club in Oman and Dubai Creek & Yacht Club.

The events were also a great opportunity for John Deere to be involved alongside local dealers Progressive Trading Qatar, Oman Technical Agencies and Orient Irrigation Services, to meet the CMAE MENA members and support the team.

Carlos Aragones, John Deere’s Manager Sales & Marketing, Turf & Golf for Europe, CIS, North Africa, Near & Middle East, said: “Continued education is a core pillar of the John Deere philosophy, and through this partnership we are committed to making ourselves available to the association’s membership for advice and support.”

Michael Braidwood, General Manager at Education City Golf Club in Qatar and former CMAE Director of Education, said: ”CMAE MENA was delighted with the support John Deere offered us to be able to have our first educational seminars in the region. Without this support, the events would have not been possible. Over 60 club industry professionals benefited from Bill McFarlan’s expertise. It is great to partner with an organisation like John Deere, who have similar values to our own, and we look forward to working with them to deliver more first-class club executive education in the future.”

CMAE’s broader vision is to become the leading organisation for club management educational programmes, and John Deere is delighted to support the Association to achieve its goals.

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