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NEWS ARTICLES

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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Groundsman ‘Tweaks’ Pitch Plans

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Groundsman ‘Tweaks’ Pitch Plans: Fleetwood Town’s head groundsman Nick Hyndman has revealed that feedback from keeper Alex Cairns has resulted in a different approach to relaying the Highbury pitch this summer.

Hyndman is hopeful the pitch will be in “brilliant” condition by the time Premier League side Burnley arrive for a friendly on July 23.

 

The groundstaff’s normal summer schedule was altered last year, when Highbury staged Alfie Boe’s Homecoming concert in June and all Town’s pre-season fixtures were away.

This year Town will host the Clarets and Preston in their final warm-up games and Hyndman told the club website how preparations are going ahead of the players’ return to the revamped Poolfoot Farm pitches for training on June 26.

He said: “We are under tight deadlines to produce a surface, so we are trying to make it grow as quick as possible. It’s all guns blazing to get the pitches ready.

“We have the stadium but ultimately we have everything that is happening at the training ground, and that is where we are day-to-day.

“It’s a very similar process to what we do each year, even though there have been some slight tweaks due to how we feel the pitch performed.

“We stripped the turf and added over 150 tonnes of new material. We’ve added synthetic goalmouths – called hybrid carpets – like last season. We got some feedback from the keepers that they weren’t getting stability throughout the season.

“The hybrid carpet almost looks like astroturf. It’s five per cent artificial fibres. Your seeds and grass grow into the fibres to create a strong rooting system that gives instant stability.

“We’ve been able to get the surface up earlier than last season, so our main aim is to get it ready for Burnley and keep it up for the game against Preston North End on July 27.

“I’m fully confident that we have more than enough time to present a brilliant surface for both games.”

As for Poolfoot, he added: “We are just over two weeks from seed now and we’ve had a brilliant uptake.

“The weather has been brilliant for it – a mix of sun and rain – which has enabled us to get on with it earlier this year.

“We were cutting it after 10 days, which I would say is the best I’ve ever seen it.

“The contractors have done a really good job. My guys have been keen to get on there to start doing what we need to do to get it ready for the start of the season.

“We normally need eight weeks to grow a pitch. Each year the players seem to be coming back earlier and earlier, which has an effect on us.

“They go on the development pitches, which we take up early so the first team can come straight back on to the grass.”

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Karl Wiedenmann Retires

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Karl Wiedenmann Retires: BTME and Saltex regular for the last 24 years, Karl Wiedenmann has retired.  Even though his remit was heading up worldwide sales for Wiedenmann Gmbh, Karl made it his business to make as many UK trade shows as possible.

For the last two and a half decades Karl has helped expand the Wiedenmann fleet beyond Terra Spike aerators into other areas such as  collecting,  sweeping, seeding  and artificial turf maintenance.

Karl Wiedenmann Retires

At a special farewell at Wiedenmann UK’s HQ, David Rae, Wiedenmann UK’s managing director said that Karl’s influence was everywhere in the Wiedenmann brand.  “Not only is he expert in logistic and technical matters, Karl’s dependability to ‘do the right thing’ shines through. Dealers and customers up and down the UK got to know him and valued his opinion. Every business needs a Karl.”

Even Karl’s legendary reliability at client functions came in for special praise.  David Rae quipped “Karl could be last to leave the bar and put the lights off at 04.00 am yet be first up, fresh and ready for breakfast at  06.00am.  We, his colleagues, loved him for that alone. He was great to have on the team.”

Karl Wiedenmann Retires

After accepting a presentation of an engraved quaich and Scotch whisky, Karl acknowledged the UK has become like a second home.  However he reserved his warmest tribute to Wiedenmann UK chairman, Alistair Rae, crediting him for generously passing on the education that enabled Karl’s smooth transition from agriculture to sports turf in the 1990s, saying it was on Alistair’s solid foundation he built his Wiedenmann career.

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