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Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”: Origin Amenity Solutions with their group member Rigby Taylor have agreed to support the Machrie Golf Internship programme launched by the club this month. This exciting initiative is a, once-in-a-lifetime, paid internship programme that will provides hands-on insight into the golf and leisure industry and a unique learning experience for […]

TLM robot saves time and money

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

TLM robot saves time and money: The Lilywhites’ home ground, Deepdale, holds the title of the ‘world’s oldest professional footballing site in continuous use’ with Preston North End FC (PNE) remaining loyal to the plot of land that [former cricket] club members leased in 1875. Today, PNE Head Groundsman Pete Ashworth and his team of […]

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

TLM robot saves time and money

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”: Origin Amenity Solutions with their group member Rigby Taylor have agreed to support the Machrie Golf Internship programme launched by the club this month.

This exciting initiative is a, once-in-a-lifetime, paid internship programme that will provides hands-on insight into the golf and leisure industry and a unique learning experience for young talent considering this career path.

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

Working across various departments the successful interns will cover the Golf and Hotel Operations and Championship Links Maintenance. But it is not all work. The internship programme students will spend days playing casual and competitive golf on the renowned golf course ranked in the Top 100 courses by Golf World Magazine.

Applicants are encouraged to sign up via: www.campbellgrayhotels.com/machrie-islay-scotland/offers/the-ultimate-golf-internship.

The deadline for submissions is 12pm on 9 January 2022, with internships running from April 2022 to October 2022.

As part of their support for this Internship programme, Rigby Taylor will make available through theory and practice many of the group resources to help ensure the success of this exciting Internship programme. Internees will be invited to visit the OAS Turf Science and Technology Centre in Essex, England where they will view and be informed upon the trials programmes being conducted and given insights into the technologies that may be available for golf course maintenance in the future.

Commenting on behalf of Machrie Golf Club Dean Muir, Golf Manager stated:

“We are delighted to have Origin Amenity Solutions and Rigby Taylor’s support for The Machrie’s Golf Internship Programme. Their involvement will be invaluable to our interns learning experience and we look forward to working with their expert team.”

Responding, Richard Fry Marketing Director for OAS stated, “This is a truly exciting and innovative industry initiative and a perfect ‘fit’ for the company in that it encompasses many of its own values and ethics. The future of the industry relies on new entrants; ones that can combine practical skills with advancing technology and the understanding of the need for a dual track, mutually inclusive approach to individual career and personal development.

OAS is a group of businesses that comprises of some highly regarded commercial entities including, Rigby Taylor, Headland Amenity, Symbio and TurfKeeper. These businesses are supported by a Turf Science and Technology Centre that has the overriding aim of achieving through research, development, education and training, advances for the benefit of the turf care industry.

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TLM robot saves time and money

November 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Richard Fry

TLM robot saves time and money: The Lilywhites’ home ground, Deepdale, holds the title of the ‘world’s oldest professional footballing site in continuous use’ with Preston North End FC (PNE) remaining loyal to the plot of land that [former cricket] club members leased in 1875.

Today, PNE Head Groundsman Pete Ashworth and his team of six, are ensuring that the site continues to remain ‘fit for purpose’ by maintaining excellent pitch standards at Deepdale – as well as those at the club’s Springfields academy site and newly acquired first-team training ground in Euxton.

TLM robot saves time and money

Both sites feature four, natural turf and fibresand pitches and are located a few miles apart, which can cause a time-management issue for Pete, although he’s now able to reduce pitch-marking man hours – thanks to Rigby Taylor’s robot line-marking technology.

Team work

Pete’s team includes Sam Newton who oversees the Deepdale stadium, 19-year-old Luke MacDonald looks after the Springfields site, while Dean Ash and Dan Mahoney manage the new Euxton site – assisted by two willing apprentices, Harry Duckworth and John Paul Mcavoy, who are given work experience across all sites, as and when required.

When the club took over the Euxton pitches in September last year [it was previously owned by Bolton Wanders and more recently Wigan Athletic FC] Pete says the site hadn’t been renovated, there was a high population of meadow grass and no fertiliser had been applied since February that year.

Dan, a former Wigan Athletic FC groundsman joined the grounds team around the same time and Pete says his knowledge of the site helped to get the pitches back on track with an agreed well-balanced fertiliser programme that mirrored the one used at the Springfields site – before raking out and lightly top dressing the pitches ready for use.

This programme included Rigby Taylor’s Activate biostimulent, ConVert and ConVert Gold, Apex and Nutri-Link liquid fertiliser – and this, plus other turf-related issues are discussed on a regular basis by Pete and former Preston Golf Club Course Manager, Andy Merry, who is now Pete’s local Rigby Taylor Sales Technician.

“I’ve worked with Rigby Taylor for most of my time at Preston and trust the products because they have always performed,” Pete says. “Andy and I have a great relationship. We have regular sit-down chats and plan what we think the pitches need the month ahead. We look at the weather forecast, compare it with the year before, and decide which products to use.”

Pete uses Rigby Taylor R14 grass seed on the Deepdale pitch and likes to mix up the grass seed on training ground pitches to “see what works best” – using Rigby Taylor’s R140 grass seed on half of the natural turf and fibresand pitches. Andy is also working with Pete to get the best product colour and longevity by conducting trial plots on the Springfields and Euxton sites.

Time efficiency

Regarding grounds team time management across the extended training ground sites, Pete says available man hours can be a problem – particularly when marking pitches in the height of the summer when the grass growth meant cutting the lines out every day.

He saw a potential solution when he was introduced to Rigby Taylor’s robotic Tiny Line Marker (TLM) at SALTEX 2019 and after subsequent demonstrations, advised the club that it would be a cost-effective time saver for the grounds team.

“Getting the robot is quite innovative for us and we’re pleased the club supported us,” Pete says. “We now take the TLM to mark out twice a week at each site – it’s used on the first team training ground on a Monday and Thursday, and the academy on a Tuesday and Friday. If there’s only one lad at the academy site, he can just set it off while he gets on with the cutting or vertidraining – it’s definitely helping us a lot.”

When the TLM Sport arrived, Pete and his team had a ‘hands-on’ TLM Sport training day at Euxton. Andrew showed the team how to use the accompanying tablet, access the football pitch templates and how to plot bespoke pitch markings. “We literally turn on the tablet, click on the required pitch template and press start – it’s so easy,” Pete says, adding that he also uses Rigby Taylor’s IMPACT paint for vibrant lines.

“Now all the pitch templates are stored in the tablet for each site, if we ever lose one – for example, if we were cutting and didn’t mark it, we know we can put the robot back out and it will mark it up from scratch within half an hour.”

The grounds team’s hard work doesn’t go unnoticed either. West Ham FC’s first team recently trained at the Springfields site before their mid-week game against Man United FC and their Saturday fixture with Leeds FC and as well as some of the players, West Ham manager David Moyes remarked on how good the pitch was – compared to when he was managing the club 20 years ago.

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

TLM robot saves time and money

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

TLM robot saves time and money

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”

Support for “Ultimate Golf Internship”: Origin Amenity Solutions with their group member Rigby Taylor have agreed to support the Machrie Golf Internship programme launched by the club this month.

TLM robot saves time and money

TLM robot saves time and money: The Lilywhites’ home ground, Deepdale, holds the title of the ‘world’s oldest professional footballing site in continuous use’ with Preston North End FC (PNE) remaining loyal to the plot of land that [former cricket] club members leased in 1875.

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