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Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

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Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light: Located near Bristol, Thornbury Golf Centre is set to embark on an exciting £600,000 irrigation investment project which is designed to amplify the look and playability of both golf courses, while also dramatically improving maintenance efficiency.

The project – funded by club owner and operator, Burhill Group Limited (BGL) – represents the group’s unwavering dedication to facility improvement and enhanced member and customer experience, while also reflecting a surge in membership numbers at all 10 clubs in recent years.

Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

The first phase of the project will cost around £275,000 and will see the foundations laid across both golf courses for the installation of a new high-tech irrigation system that will include tee boxes, fairways, approaches and greens. Crucially, the new system will allow the club to better manage the amount of moisture in the ground, making the courses more playable, all year round.

Once completed, the new irrigation system will be controlled via mobile device or computer, allowing maintenance teams to control the conditioning of the golf courses, 24-hours a day. This will make a huge difference to staff efficiency and will also help to deliver an exceptional golf experience that can be enjoyed by club members, guests, and visitors.

Tim Good, General Manager of Thornbury Golf Centre, said: “We are delighted to have been afforded this opportunity by BGL, to make further enhancements to our facility. We are committed to delivering the very best golfing experience for our members and guests, and this is the next step along our road of continuous improvement.”

Guy Riggott, Operations Director at BGL Golf, commented: “We are constantly monitoring the progress of our facilities and looking for new and innovative ways to improve our offering. With this upgrade to the irrigation system across both courses, the team at Thornbury will be able to offer a first-class golfing facility, 12 months of the year.”

This news comes immediately following the club’s announcement that it has been officially awarded with the SafeGolf Accreditation and has been recognised as a GEO Certified venue. These awards reflect the club’s commitment to health and safety, the local environment, social responsibility, and sustainability.

Good added: “We are constantly looking at ways to develop and improve our working practices, so we are extremely pleased that both England Golf and GEO have recognised our efforts, both in health and safety and environmental sectors.”

To find out more about Thornbury Golf Centre and to book your visit, head online to www.thornburygc.co.uk, or call 01454 281144.

For more information on Burhill Golf and Leisure Ltd visit www.bglcompany.co.uk or follow @BGLGolf on LinkedIn.

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Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

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Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’: Coombe Wood Golf Club in Kingston Upon Thames is reaping the benefits of a tailored turf management programme from ICL and a dedicated greenkeeping team – according to Course Manager Laurence Fennemore.

“I knew the course needed a lot of work when I joined, but I saw it as an opportunity,” said Laurence. “It was a chance to test myself and put my name on the map. It helps having a great team around me too.”

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Laurence always wanted to be a Greenkeeper – ever since embarking on work experience at a local golf club at the age of 15. He has been an apprentice, a deputy and now he finds himself in the top seat at Coombe Wood Golf Club – which he admitted is not without its challenges.

“It is like managing two different courses,” he said. The top half of the course consists of 10 very gravelly holes and the lower half, holes 11-18, is on clay which hold a lot of water. As soon as I came here in 2019, we had a very wet winter, and the lower half of the course wasn’t open at all.

“I found that the grass had died off on the fairways and had been overrun with weeds and there was quite a lot of disease on the greens.”

Laurence explained it was at this point that he got in touch with ICL.

“My old Course Manager worked with an ICL turf management programme, and I saw the successful results from that first hand. With this in mind I got in contact with ICL to see how they could help me out.”

Matt Nutter, ICL Technical Area Sales Manager, worked with Laurence to put a specific programme together for a full season that was within his budget. “We needed to focus on the greens and fairways and take into consideration that it is a very wet site, without any irrigation,” said Matt. “The aim was to apply some controlled release granular fertilisers as base feeds; get some good growth and give the golfers a course that they could use.”

Starting with the greens, the programme first saw Laurence apply Greenmaster Pro-Lite Turf Tonic 8-0-0 – a micro-granular fertiliser before going onto a fortnightly tank-mix consisting of Greenmaster Liquid CalMag, Vitalnova Stressbuster, Primo Maxx II plant growth regulator and Syngenta’s Ryder turf pigment. As part of the programme, Laurence also relies on monthly applications of Vitalnova SeaMax liquid seaweed extract and H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent.

“The greens have seen a big improvement and there is a lot more grass coverage,” said Laurence. “Primo Maxx II is controlling the growth and we are not taking large amounts of clippings off every time we cut; we have a nice tighter sward, and Ryder has really helped visually – it gives the turf a fantastic green colour.”

Matt was in agreement and added that he feels that the tank-mix has been integral to the results on the greens: “This mix is so consistent,” he said. “You don’t get a massive flush of growth and you don’t see the colour dipping off – you get the full 14 days out of it until it is ready for the next application.”

When it came to the fairways, Laurence applies Sportsmaster CRF Mini fertiliser and monthly applications of H2Pro AquaSmart wetting agent.

“The plan was to get moisture in the ground and to make the most of the wet in the spring,” he said. “AquaSmart at 10L/ha every four weeks from March until June really helped to keep enough water in the ground when the dry spells came in August and September. As a result, we didn’t lose any grass coverage.”

Without any irrigation, Laurence was forced to apply AquaSmart when it rained and that meant that he had to be flexible.

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

Coombe Wood GC the ‘best in decades’

“We had the plans and everything in place but if it didn’t rain on the day I wanted to apply AquaSmart, then I needed to apply it as close to that day, within the four week window, as possible. This often meant coming in on my days off, but it was worth it because we have a nice even growth now and the moisture meter readings are proving that we have a high percentage of water being retained in the fairways.”

Buoyed by the successful results, Matt is now devising a new programme with some additions and tweaks. In the meantime, Laurence is not the only one to be impressed at Coombe Wood.

“The members are very happy with many commenting that it is the best it has been in decades,” said Laurence. “It is reassuring to have ICL and Matt on-board – I am always asking for suggestions and he is happy to talk it through and give me his opinion.

“It’s great to be able to bounce ideas off one another and the fact that I can have a tailored maintenance programme to suit my budget is invaluable.

“I would also like to add that my team have worked incredibly hard to turn the course around. Some of their practices have really maximised the results of the ICL programme.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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Deeside GC bolsters Toro fleet

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Deeside GC bolsters Toro fleet: Deeside Golf Club, set in traditional Scottish parkland on the bank of the River Dee outside Aberdeen, has signed its third renewal agreement with Toro, boosting its impressive fleet by a further 17 machines.

The club has welcomed an extensive raft of machinery which includes fairway mowers, sidewinders, top dressers and sprayers, along with the industry’s first all-electric ride-on greensmower, the Toro Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370.

Deeside GC bolsters Toro fleet

Deeside GC bolsters Toro fleet

The machines support course manager, Neil McLoughlin, and his eight full-time staff to maintain the club’s 27 holes all-year round.

Neil explains: “We are located in traditional Scottish parkland and due to our position just eight metres above sea level on the banks of the River Dee we can experience some challenging environmental conditions. We can be subject to flooding, particularly in winter when the water table sits high, and we have lots of mature trees casting shade across parts of the course. Resilient, reliable machinery is a must for us and Toro provides quality every time.

“It’s easy to use, adaptable and, having worked with Toro for so long, we understand the machines. Plus, the greenkeeping team absolutely love using them.

“Some of our older mowers are into their thirteenth year with us, which is testament to their quality and durability. They still provide as excellent a finish as the newer models we’ve recently introduced, although I have to say we’re particularly enjoying the electric eTriFlex 3370 ride-on. It’s so quiet and the cut is fantastic! I would definitely buy electric again.”

Each machine is set up for its intended purpose, meaning that Neil and his team don’t need to keep adjusting the height of the machines as they go between cutting rough or semi-rough. And, despite such a large fleet, technical issues are few and far between.

Neil continues: “We seldom have any problems and if we do, they are resolved quickly. The back-up is vital for us as we don’t have a full-time mechanic on site. Whilst we can carry out basic maintenance ourselves, we rely on having the support from the team at Reesink.”

Reesink is the sole distributor in the UK for Toro golf and sports fields equipment and Richard Green who is manager at Reesink’s Livingstone branch comments: “Deeside Golf Club is a great example of a club which has an excellent understanding of the Toro products. They invest in and look after the fleet, and in return we support them with back-up care and equipment which enable them to deliver on their greenkeeping goals.”

Neil concludes: “We strive to provide excellent playing surfaces for our 1,300 members all year round. Having the high-quality Toro machinery makes my job easier, allowing me to focus on improving the courses from season to season.”

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Toro UK to attend SALTEX

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Toro UK to attend SALTEX: As a leading worldwide provider of innovative turf, landscape and construction equipment, Toro UK will be demonstrating this line-up in full at SALTEX 2021. Toro UK will be on-hand to deliver expert advice as well as demonstrate their own products such as the Z-Master range and the 60V ProLine Heavy Duty mower with be demonstrated within the ECO Village.

New for Saltex, the Z Master 2000, 4000 and 7500-D will be showcased to all attendees where they will be able to view the choice of decks, comfortable controls and the MyRIDE® Suspension System. The Z-Master range offers world-class comfort and a premium and lavish finish.

Toro UK to attend SALTEX

Toro UK to attend SALTEX

Matt Coleman, Sales Manager Professional Landscape Contractor & Site Works Equipment for Toro U.K. Limited said: “We are delighted to be exhibiting our products at SALTEX  2021. We are even more excited, as this is the first SALTEX since 2019 – so we are eager to get back talking with our customers, peers, making connections in-person again and doing our part in ensuring this event is a success.”

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Berthoud Vermorel professional knapsacks

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Berthoud Vermorel professional knapsacks: Knapsack, hand-held and compression sprayer manufacturer Berthoud’s Vermorel range offers professional operators the perfect tools to deliver safe, controlled, efficient spraying.

The three premium knapsack models share common features to heighten comfort, ease maintenance and upkeep and ensure reliable, directional spray accuracy.

Berthoud Vermorel professional knapsacks

Berthoud Vermorel professional knapsacks

The Vermorel 2000 Pro Comfort comes with fully specified padded harness, 0.6m highly mechanically and chemically resistant composite lance and 15/10 plate swirl, blue flat fan and blue anvil multi-purpose adjustable nozzles.

“This really is a great sprayer,” notes Hozelock-Exel UK National Account Manager Allan Wainwright, “and is fully-equipped to provide rock-steady reliability. I use it on my own lawn.”

Meanwhile, the Vermorel 1800, like the ‘2000’, offers ergonomic back frame and padded shoulder harness and 0.6m composite lance, plus 15/10 swirl nozzle.

Meeting rising demand for greener spray strategies, the Vermorel 3000 Electric includes a host of features to ensure grounds professionals work in optimal comfort, safety and convenience.

Fitted with 12V lithium ion battery and working to a 2.5hr charging cycle, the `3000` comes with fully specified harness, complete with waist, chest and shoulder padding.

The traffic light battery charge level indicator gives ample notice for operators to schedule work, while the three pressure settings (1, 1.5 and 3 Bar) allow three to six-hour spray sessions.

With telescopic (0.6 to 1m) composite lance as standard, the `3000` is available with cone 15/10, blue flat fan and brown anvil nozzles to cover a spread of spray applications.

All Vermorel knapsacks are easy to use and to dismantle for servicing and repair.  They are ideally suited for applying sanitisers and disinfectants and are available with a host of accessories such as spray shields, seal and nozzle kits and multi-nozzle spray booms to give operators even greater flexibility.

Service excellence is a keystone of the Hozelock-Exel sprayer ranges. “Both Berthoud and sister brand Cooper-Pegler sprayers are built to giving lasting satisfaction,” Allan says, “and are backed by next-day replacement parts and accessories delivery.

“We strongly recommend though that operators thoroughly test their new sprayers with water before filling them with treatment liquids, just to ensure everything is fully operational,” he adds.

Find out more here – https://bit.ly/3AixX41

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