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NEWS ARTICLES

Central England greenkeepers to enjoy 60 Shades of Green

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From the launch of a brand new chemical group to a talk about worldwide volunteering opportunities, the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association’s Central England Regional Conference will provide the most up-to-date education opportunities available to the region’s greenkeepers.

The event takes place on Wednesday 1 March 2017 at Kings Norton Golf Club, Birmingham and among the attractions will be Richard Owens of Tillers Turf and his talk on the ’60 Shades of Green’.

Sure to arouse the interests of turf management professionals, the presentation will discuss turf production, case studies, the Golf Environment Awards, and how golf clubs can get involved.

Gaudet Luce Course Manager Andy Laing is vice chairman of the Central Section and said: “While it’s not always possible to take the whole team to BTME, the regional conference offers a great day’s education and networking opportunities for all my staff, enabling them to focus their minds ready for the start of the season without breaking the bank. It’s a great day, and not to be missed.”

Also presenting at the event will be Dr Colin Mumford, technical support manager at Bayer. Colin will explain how the first chemical group to be launched in a decade will give turf managers a new tool in the fight against fungicides.

Graeme Roberts will discuss the benefits of volunteering, while Richard Elwell will discuss how to get the best out of yourself and your golf club for the benefit of both parties.

Dr Kate Entwistle of the Turf Disease Centre will explain how moves towards preventative disease management are necessary in the face of tighter restrictions, and the latest disease species to have arisen.

The Central England Region is the new name for the former Midlands Region, which came into effect at the BIGGA Annual General Meeting, held at BTME this January. The region’s new name gives a better representation of the broad area covered, spanning from the Welsh border in the west to The Wash in the east.

John Deere Classic Voted Tournament of The Year

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The 2016 John Deere Classic held in the US has been voted the PGA TOUR’s Tournament of the Year. The 46th annual John Deere Classic also received first place awards for Most Engaged Community and Best Social Media Activation from the PGA in December.

From a social media standpoint, the John Deere Classic’s Facebook page generated more than 150,000 ‘likes,’ more than any other event page on the PGA TOUR last season. The 2016 event also had 38,000 combined followers on Twitter and Instagram, the second-highest on the TOUR.

“The John Deere Classic is thrilled to have been honoured in this way,” said tournament director Clair Peterson. “The Tournament of the Year Award represents the great work of the board of directors, staff, our 1700 incredible volunteers, our 491 participating charities, and our steadfast and supportive title sponsor John Deere, whose commitment to corporate citizenship is a core principle of the company.”

“This is an incredible honour, and I want to thank our many employee volunteers, whose support is integral to the tournament’s success,” said Mara Sovey Downing, Deere’s director of global brand management and corporate citizenship. “Our partnership with the PGA TOUR provides a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate Deere’s commitment to our community and the golf industry.”

PGA TOUR chief tournaments and competitions officer Andy Pazder praised the 2016 John Deere Classic, which helped raise a record US$10.54 million for charity and produced a champion in Ryan Moore who had nine top 10 finishes and clinched the final point in the US team’s victory over Europe in the Ryder Cup in 2016.

A seven-year extension to John Deere’s title sponsorship of professional golf was recently announced by Deere & Company, the PGA TOUR and the John Deere Classic tournament, which took effect at the end of 2016. The agreement includes sponsorship of the John Deere Classic and multiple designations for John Deere in the TOUR’s Official Marketing Partner programme.

As a result of this new agreement, John Deere will celebrate 25 years as a PGA TOUR title sponsor in 2022. The company retains its designations as official golf course equipment supplier to the PGA TOUR and the TPC network, official landscape product supplier to the PGA TOUR, and official golf course equipment leasing company. John Deere equipment is used at all TOUR-owned TPC facilities.

Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to more than 1 billion households in 226 countries and territories in 32 languages. The 2017 John Deere Classic will be held from July 10 to 16 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.

Sherriff Amenity Launch Marathon TCR Fertiliser

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Sherriff Amenity has announced the launch of Marathon Turf Core Renovator, which is the latest addition to the popular range of Marathon fertilisers.

For a number of years, turf managers have reaped the benefits of Sherriff Amenity’s range of Marathon fertilisers – The Marathon Sport range of extended release fertilisers provide long-lasting, balanced growth on golf greens fairways, tees, surrounds, sports fields and ornamental lawns maintained at a height of 10mm and above. In addition to this the Marathon Golf range offers excellent longevity for fine turf areas, including golf and bowls greens.

It delivers a denser sward with deeper, healthier rooting but without the need of drastically increasing labour inputs.

The Marathon Sport & Golf range is characterised by a balance of nutrients, the analyses of each product being geared to a specific growth stage or season. With five existing products in the Marathon Sport range – Autumn, Pre-Seed, Spring, Summer and Lawn Mini Pack and three products in the Marathon Golf range – Spring, Summer, and Autumn – there truly is a solution for every requirement, no matter what the time of year.

Marathon TCR is the latest addition to the range and will be of particular interest to those who want to aid the recovery of turf after periods of stress and renovation work. It contains a mixture of nitrogen sources to provide both immediate and prolonged growth for recovery so that playing surfaces can be quickly returned to use.

This is an extremely versatile product that can be used on all areas of the golf course as well as sports turf pitches and ornamental lawns that need re-vitalising.

Key Benefits of Marathon TCR

  • Rapid recovery from essential maintenance
  • Helps deal with the stress and abrasion caused by re-filling core holes
  • Fast green-up of damaged turf
  • Ammonium nitrogen content allows use in cooler conditions
  • Simple and cost-effective

Sherriff Amenity has established a reputation as the industry leading supplier of professional products and specialist advice. The company’s commitment to research and development enables them to continuously provide innovative new products, ideas and solutions to their customers, year on year.

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

Successful Use of 3G in Non-League Stadia

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The success of Sutton Utd in reaching the fifth round of this year’s FA Cup has once again brought attention to the use of 3G in Football Stadia. Since Sutton Utd installed a FieldTurf Vertex pitch in 2015 they have achieved great success both on and off the pitch.

On top of their unprecedented FA Cup run, Sutton Utd have also achieved promotion to the National League and seen the Gander Green Lane pitch used as the venue for the England C U21 International Trophy match. Paul Fairclough, the England Manager, commented after the match, “Having played Slovakia U21’s and trained at Sutton United’s new 3rd generation pitch, it was the best surface I have seen, and this includes all those pitches I have ever come across in Europe as well”.

The financial benefits of installing a 3G pitch are well known but what has been most refreshing has been the positive reaction from media, players and managers to the way the pitch has played. The unique design of the Vertex surface improves both the aesthetics and playability of the pitch and coupled with the shockpad underneath ensures optimum levels of player comfort and safety.

Following the success of the Sutton pitch, the Vertex system has also been installed in the Stadia of Maidstone Utd, Slough Town FC, Harrogate Town FC, Tamworth Utd, Eastbourne Borough FC and Haringey Borough FC. The feedback from all these facilities is equally as positive and more and more clubs are now looking at installing a 3G pitch at their ground.

It is critical that clubs who are thinking of installing an artificial pitch are fully informed in all aspects of synthetic turf. With this in mind, FieldTurf is supporting construction partner S&C Slatter in running an education workshop with industry experts covering everything from testing requirements, maintenance, business models, funding options and pitch technology.

Winter Weather Disease Warning

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With this year’s wet and warm winter weather creating the perfect conditions for turf diseases such as fusarium, snow mould and anthracnose to thrive, maintaining healthy rhizosphere conditions is the first step in preventing infections from detracting from turf performance and appearance.

That is the advice from Richard Brown of Germinal who recommends that an early season application of a rhizobacteria enhanced fertiliser will not only provide plants with vital nutrients, but will also promote healthy root development and protect against soil borne seedling diseases.

“Apart from the occasional, brief period of colder weather, many parts of the UK have experienced unseasonably wet and warm weather throughout much of the winter,” says Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal. “Whether this is simply a short-term weather pattern or a sign of things to come only time will tell, but turf professionals need to be wary of the dangers that these conditions can have on turf quality and performance.”

Mr Brown therefore emphasises the need for turf professionals to give extra consideration to soil health and to pay particular attention to the vitality of the rhizosphere.

“Plant growth and health is influenced by many abiotic and biotic factors, with the rhizosphere – the thin layer of soil immediately surrounding plant roots – especially important for root activity and metabolism,” Mr Brown explains. “This zone is populated by an abundance of microorganisms including beneficial pathogens – rhizobacteria – and harmful pathogens including nematodes and the soil borne fungi which cause diseases such as fusarium, snow mould and anthracnose.”

Of the beneficial bacteria found in the rhizosphere, the Bacillus genus is the most abundant.

“The plant growth promoting activity of some members of the Bacillus genus has been known for many years,” Mr Brown adds, “with Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens the most commonly used commercially available soil enhancing bacteria.

“All Bacillus strains provide some protection from harmful pathogens by colonating and growing on roots, but only specific strains cover the entire root surface from top to tip to create a truly impenetrable barrier.”

Two strains of rhizobacteria which provide protection across the entire root surface are B.subtilis E4-CDX and B.amyloliquefaciens R6-CDX. “Both of these strains provide full root protection and prevent soil borne diseases from infecting grass plants and detracting from the appearance and vigour of sports pitches and fine turf areas. When applied in a timely, proactive manner they can even mitigate the need for expensive fungicide programmes by preventing the diseases from taking hold.”

B.subtilis E4-CDX and B.amyloliquefaciens R6-CDX are found exclusively within Compo’s Fertilis compound and Vitanica liquid fertiliser ranges.

“When combined with liquid and granular fertilisers, B.subtilis and B.amyloliquefaciens provide a readily-available source of nutrients in combination with a proven disease inhibition effect,” Mr Brown continues. “By applying products such as Fertilis Swing, Fertilis Speed and Vitanica RZ to well-aerated soils with a base temperature of 10oC or higher, these specialist fertilisers provide grass swards with three distinct benefits: improved wear-tolerance and visual appearance along with improved disease resistance for up to 42 days.”