GXi8 HD for Prestwick GC: Prestwick Golf Club, the birthplace of The Open Championship, is one of Scotland’s oldest and most famous courses.
A machinery replacement budget allows Course Manager, Dave Edmondson, an injection of capital, annually, to add and replace machines.
GXi8 HD for Prestwick GC
“We made provision for the club’s 14-year-old Wiedenmann Terra Spike XF6 to retire in 2023. However, it was still doing such a clean and efficient job that I knew it could easily finish a 15th year of service, so pencilled its replacement for December 2024, instead.
“At a demo mid-summer, it took only a few minutes to choose it would be followed by a GXi8 HD. After watching it take a run across the practice chipping green on 12 mm tines, leaving such little surface disruption, I didn’t need to see anything else. The elderly XF6 was traded in very favourably; a good bit of business, all round.”
Dave joined the South Ayrshire club during 2020, appointed to his post from The Island Golf Club in Donabate, County Dublin, and heads a team of eleven.
“Prestwick is a classic links site; there’s a lot of history here. We are very traditional in our management, low input, very little fertiliser, no pesticides, aiming always for minimum disturbance.
“I plan aeration to go once; usually the last week of January, conditions allowing. We’ll do greens, tees, aprons and sections of the fairways with 12 mm tines.
“I chose the GXi8 on the basis it brings a choice to go again, maybe once or twice across the season, on the greens with smaller 8 mm tines. I don’t want to disrupt golf, and this is the best machine to suit us.”
Stuart Cameron, Area Sales Manager at Fairways GM, Wiedenmann UK’s Scottish dealer and Wiedenmann’s, lead demonstrator, Andy Kerr, installed the machine for the Prestwick team.
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