Greenkeeper Sets Up Mental Health Support Page

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Greenkeeper Sets Up Mental Health Support Page: The head greenkeeper of Hazel Grove Golf Club in Cheshire has set up a successful Facebook page that offers mental health support to greenkeepers in the industry.

Mike Davie created the page after observing “the increase of expectations of the golfer with increased personal abuse aimed at, and stress among, the greenkeeping community”.

He added that he’s known greenkeepers who have left the industry due to this, and therefore set up the page ‘Greenkeepers mental health support group’ earlier this year.

It already has more than 250 members.

“Mental health issues are more apparent nowadays as more seek medical help,” he said.

“Yet little support is offered from many golf clubs and duty of care is apparently not seen as a necessity.

“One of the problems is that clubs are run by well-meaning volunteers, which means when they need to discipline members for acts against the club’s staff, they don’t want a confrontation with their ‘friends‘ and would rather brush the matter under the table and resolve the issue by providing a polite pat on the head of the greenkeeper. This all creates a feeling of isolation within the industry.

“Any sign of acknowledging a problem by oneself is deemed as thought of being weak, so we tend to bottle it up, causing greater problems.

“In late 2017 I attended a stress awareness seminar by BIGGA at Sale Golf Club and realised that, by the number who had attended, and the fact that many are highly respected within the industry, we had a problem with mental welfare.

“I started a local support group in south Manchester for greenkeepers who wished to attend and talk out their problems. The realisation that we are not alone made a huge difference. The feedback I got was positive so the Facebook page was started in late July.

“This group does not always need people to comment but, as I have been told, the fact there is a page that can be accessed gives strength to someone feeling down.

“A big problem with our industry is that it is a high percentage negative industry. For example, you lie in bed listening to the rain, wondering how the course is affected. Will there be breakdowns, will all the staff turn up? The first thought of seeing a committee member is ‘what’s their complaint?’ and so on.

“These sites help to promote the fact we are not alone and in fact are a strong community we just need to tap in to, build bridges and connect more.

“In the long term I hope that the governing bodies will take on the challenge of promoting, supporting and giving help to the welfare of greenkeepers.”

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Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations

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Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations: Rigby Taylor will be making a major golf industry announcement at BTME in Harrogate to herald the start of a year of celebrations for the company’s 100-year anniversary. 

While details of the exciting initiative in conjunction with BTME organiser BIGGA will be released at the show, there is a host of additional reasons why greenkeepers should make a bee-line for Rigby Taylor’s expansive stand (stand 424, Purple Zone), including the launch of a specially formulated range of early season fertilisers, the 2019 grass seed mixtures and the company’s ‘Active Planning’ turf disease prevention programmes.

Rigby Taylor Centenary Celebrations

Rigby Taylor will also be launching a website for its Euroflor urban meadow flower products (www.euroflor.co.uk), further announcements will be made on the company’s involvement in the irrigation market.

In addition, a golf simulator ‘nearest the pin’ competition will be staged on every day of the show, in support of the trade charity Perennial.

For more information, visit: www.rigbytaylor.com

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Price Turfcare At BTME

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Price Turfcare At BTME: Price Turfcare will be returning to BTME for the third time in January, back to Harrogate where the company was officially launched back in 2017.

Commenting on the first two years in business, Managing Director Rupert Price said,

Price Turfcare At BTME

“A totally unbelievable couple of years since we launched the business back in 2017,” he said. “I have no idea where the time has gone. It’s been a whirlwind of demonstrations, roadshows and exhibitions to get the Ventrac and Ryan brands out in front of the UK turf industry. It’s been very hard work, probably harder than I envisaged, but it’s definitely paying off. Ventrac was virtually invisible in the UK before 2017, now we have established it as a credible brand.

“So much so, that some of our early customers such as Peter Pattenden at Carden Park and Chris Brook at The Club Company have come back to order more machines and additional accessories. We have proved that the Ventrac is an extremely versatile machine, with many applications for golf course management.

As well as golf customers, machines are going into major sports facilities, to large landscape contractors, rental companies and to some private buyers with large estates. The addition of the Ryan franchise in 2018 has also given us a boost and the result is that we have an eclectic mix of turf maintenance machinery to suit any organisation, small or large.

Come and visit us on stand 450 in the Purple Area and see why we are making an impact.

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Greenkeeping Team Rewarded

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Greenkeeping Team Rewarded: The greenkeeping team at Golf At Goodwood has realised its ambition of gaining the coveted Golf Environment Organisation certification for its commitment to sustainability across both the Park and Downs courses.

GEO Certified® is the symbol of great golf environments worldwide, showing a facility has met a credible standard in sustainability across six areas.

To be eligible, the greenkeeping team had to submit an extensive application that evidenced work in nature, water, energy, supply chain, pollution control and community.

The team, led by sports turf and grounds general manager Phil Helmn, set out to achieve GEO certification knowing it would safeguard the environmental future of the courses and be of benefit to members, customers and the local community.

Independent verification led to the GEO concluding Golf At Goodwood should receive certification because of its “outstanding work to minimise impact on the environment through introduction of biomass heating, solar panels and enhanced monitoring on water consumption.

”It said: “The club has also undertaken numerous natural environment projects providing enhancements to habitat in line with the surveys and advice commissioned by the facility.”

The application took 12 months and involved the greenkeeping team working with different departments across the Goodwood Estate.

Russell Carr, deputy head greenkeeper on the Park course, was credited by Helmn as being the man to pull together the resources and information to submit the application to the GEO.

He said: “We’ve introduced a sustainability ethos into our thinking with regular team meetings and it has been great seeing each team member embrace it.”

Helmn was proud of the work his team had put in and said: “Work towards this certification started four and a half years ago.”

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Top Dresser In The North East

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Top Dresser In The North East: Beaumont Grounds Maintenance took delivery of a GKB top dresser at the start of the season to help fulfil the needs of their many contracted sites.  Covering an area across the North East, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Humber, the family-run commercial and sports grounds maintenance business looks after a diversity of clients from schools, academies, sports clubs, councils and factories through to hotels and property management companies. In recent years the company has pushed the boundaries with expansion in the sports turf market, contracting directly for sports clubs and golf courses, providing specialist services and working with the clients’ own teams. One such venue is Gateshead International Stadium and it was to there the GKB SP230 Sandspreader was delivered.

“The GKB machine was recommended by our local dealers, Lloyd Ltd of Bishop Auckland, and we were very impressed with the service,” says Beaumont’s Managing Director, Alex Lineton, “it took less than a week from order to delivery and Tom Shinkins, GKB’s own Operations Manager, brought the top dresser to us and set it up at the stadium.” The Sandspreader can be used to distribute a variety of materials and the version ordered, the SP230 with a bunker capacity 2.3 m³ / 81 ft³ flat filled, is one of four different designs ranging from 1 m3 to 4 m3. There are several options.

Top Dresser In The North East

With the standard design, you can set the speed of the conveyer belt and the disc spreaders by means of a control unit attached to the Sandspreader. The shape and design of the sand bunker ensures an efficient operation and ensures a clear view along the machine. The sand is transported by means of a conveyer belt to a metering valve, which, optionally, is also available in a hydraulically adjustable version. The double, hydraulically powered, spreading discs are adjustable on multiple points and in this way the Sandspreader enables you to create perfect sand distribution. A touchscreen operated from the tractor cab gives complete control.  The towed version can be delivered with four pivoting balloon tyres and there is a model suitable for assembling on a turf truck.

The Beaumont machine has been fully employed throughout the season across a large number of sports venues including Northumberland University, the renowned sports university with its two sites and several pitches. “We’re very pleased with the results,” says Alex, “the GKB machine is simplicity itself, well built, easy to maintain and it does a good job. I highly recommend it.”

For more details on GKB machines visit www.gkbmachines.com  or call Tom Shinkins on 07495 883617.

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