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Praxys impresses at the Royal Birkdale

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Praxys impresses at the Royal Birkdale: Chris Whittle, Course Manager at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, claims that Praxys, ICL’s high performance, highly concentrated systemic selective herbicide, plays an integral role in his weed control programme.

Royal Birkdale hardly needs any introduction – it is after all one of the finest courses in England and has held more Championship and International events since World War 2 than any other course in the world including Open Championships, Ryder Cups, Women’s British Opens, Senior Opens, Amateur Championships, Walker Cups and Curtis Cups.

Praxys impresses at the Royal Birkdale

Praxys impresses at the Royal Birkdale

Chris has overseen many of these prestigious events having been at the club for an impressive 26 years. He currently oversees a team of ten members of staff who all work hard to maintain this truly prestigious course.

When it comes to weed control, Chris has reported highly encouraging results from using ICL’s Praxys for the past five years, after it was initially recommended to him from ICL distributor Aitkens.

Praxys, renowned for killing the toughest of weeds, possesses a number of benefits. Featuring systemic uptake right down to the roots with no regrowth, this fast-acting weedkiller allows rapid entry and is rainfast within just one hour. It also has the lowest dosage rates and water volume of any selective herbicide available.

It combines the three most powerful active ingredients on the market, Florasulam, Fluroxypyr and Clopyralid, to wipe out weeds on golf courses, sports and amenity turf and lawns in one application.

Praxys was developed to target common weeds like daisy and dandelion and it completely kills more problematic ones such as Self-heal, Ribwort Plantain and Spear Thistle

The extremely low dose rate, from one litre per hectare, is flexible depending on the weed spectrum to be controlled. Low dose means less packaging and less waste and because only one application is required, it also makes Praxys one of the most cost-effective options available.

Chris usually applies Praxys in June each year and believes it is an essential product in his weed management programme.

“We predominately apply Praxys to our tees and fairways and it has been really impressive,” he said. “We’ll never totally eradicate difficult weeds, because new weeds keep coming through each year. However, Praxys works well in our integrated approach towards managing them and with its low water volume coupled with its low impact on the environment it makes for a great product for us to use”

“After applying Praxys, you can see initial dieback of the weeds within days and then you notice further results a couple of weeks later on the more troublesome ones such as greater plantains.”

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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Keith Pelley at the GolfBIC conference

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Keith Pelley at the GolfBIC conference: The European Tour has completed 20,000 Covid tests with just five positives since the outbreak of the pandemic. They have also spent £5 million on their health strategy.

That startling fact was revealed by European Tour CEO, Keith Pelley, speaking at the virtual GolfBic Conference.

Keith Pelley at the GolfBIC conference

Keith Pelley at the GolfBIC conference

“Our most valuable member of staff was Dr Andrew Murray, our Chief Medical Officer,” said Keith.

He also revealed how close the Tour came to having to refund money to the broadcasting companies as a result of not fulfilling its quota of events.

“At one point due to cancellations we only had eight events in 2020 with 30 events moved or cancelled and we needed to get to 32 to fulfil our broadcasting commitments.

“We did everything possible to be able to play. We introduced two UK swings in the summer and the autumn. We played at Celtic Manor twice and Cyprus twice and we played for 27 straight weeks including 23 regular Tour events. As we’d played 10 events before Covid we hit 33 and achieved our aim,” said Keith, who revealed that last year they furloughed 100 staff and laid off 60.

The 2021 season also carries its challenges with travel restrictions making moving around the world difficult, but the European Tour has recently partnered with the PGA Tour, who have taken a stake in European Tour Productions, and so the European Tour will soon be playing events in Florida.

“Last year I was petrified, but this year because we have shown how adaptable and innovative we can be I’m not remotely worried about making it work,” Keith told his on-line audience.

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Rob Maxfield at the GolfBIC conference

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Rob Maxfield at the GolfBIC conference: Speaking at the GolfBIC virtual conference PGA Chief Executive Rob Maxfield, said that golf had a wonderful opportunity to grow following the boost in playing numbers it had experienced over the last nine months.

However, he said that clubs would have to “welcome with open arms” and look after those new and returning golfers and ensure that they kept them as members.

Rob Maxfield at the GolfBIC conference

Rob Maxfield at the GolfBIC conference

“We need the golfing bodies to unite and work together and ensure that there was one junior golf initiative not 10 and that clubs would have to look at modernising their rules and remove arcane dress codes and phone bans in the clubhouse.

“We have got to rid the game of the label of being a white, middle aged, middle class male sport,” he told Geoff Russell, Editor of Golf Business News.

The news that the age profile of the game had also dropped during lockdown was also seen as positive for the game.

“Because youngsters couldn’t do anything else during lockdown they were playing golf, while others were coming back to the game, however, a cautionary note is that my son was put off because he wasn’t allowed to play with his shirt outside his trousers. Now is that the worst thing in the world?” said Rob.

When the pandemic struck 12 months ago Rob, who has been Chief Executive since 2017, met on a daily basis with his Senior Management Team planning on how best to support their 8,000 members, their staff and to discuss finances.

“We agreed not to furlough staff but to use them to contact all of our members. We endeavoured to call members and in the end spoke with over 90% of them. We also organised regular webinars, often with as many as 1,000 people participating, on a range of subjects,” said Rob, who added that the All Party – Parliamentary Golf Group, Chaired by Craig Tracey MP, had brought all golfing bodies together on a weekly basis.

“Cycling is the sport of choice for many at the moment with people talking about going out for rides at the weekend. Let’s get more people talking about going for a game of golf at the weekend.”

GolfBIC is running for three days with a range of influential speakers, including, Keith Pelley, CEO of the European Tour; Phil Anderton, the R&A’s Chief Development Officer; Craig Tracey, Chair, of the All-Party Parliamentary Golf Group, and Jay Karen, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association.

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Vandals damage green at Whinhill

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Vandals damage green at Whinhill: Inverclyde Leisure bosses are feeling teed off after mindless vandals went on the rampage at Whinhill Golf Course.

Read the full article from the Greenock Telegraph here

Vandals damage green at Whinhill

Vandals damage green at Whinhill

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UltraGroomer™ gets to grips at Glamorgan

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UltraGroomer™ gets to grips at Glamorgan: Glamorgan CCC are the latest in a growing list of cricket clubs to discover the benefits of the UltraGroomer™ cassette from the renowned TMSystem™ collection.

Purchased in conjunction with a 30” INFINICUT® FL mower in June 2020, the unit has helped Head Groundsman Robin Saxton to remove thatch and annual meadow grass accumulations to improve both presentation and overall plant health.

UltraGroomer™ gets to grips at Glamorgan

UltraGroomer™ gets to grips at Glamorgan

“The combination of the very wet winter quickly followed by warm conditions in the spring had caused a build-up of annual meadow grass on the square” explains Robin, who together with a team of five maintains the Sophia Gardens Ground and an off-site practice area. “We were familiar with the UltraGroomer™ from prior experience and felt it was going to be key to us clearing the accumulations and improving sward cleanliness moving forward. Since we’ve been using the cassette it’s exceeded what we hoped to achieve!”

Featuring over 80 tungsten carbide tipped blades, the UltraGroomer™ improves the plants immediate environment by removing Poa ingress, lateral growth and organic matter to enhance the movement of oxygen and nutrients and make it more difficult for disease pathogens to take hold. “During the main season, we were passing over the square every 3-4 weeks and each time were amazed at the amount of debris and organic matter we took out – we achieved a square which was clean, carried good pace and encouraged strong, healthy plant growth.”

“The UltraGroomer™ will also be used in pre-renovation work, to thin out the surface and create an ideal seed bed to optimise the results with our seeding and topdressing operations.”

When not equipped with the UltraGroomer™ cassette, the INFINICUT® FL complete with SMARTCut™ reel has become the go-to mower for Robin when it comes to cutting the square. “We’re very impressed with both the cut quality and presentation we achieve. This combination of equipment puts us in a fantastic position to continue to improve our facility, ready to host a more regular level of play (fingers crossed!) next season.”

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