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Ladyback Golf Club commit to Ventrac

Ladyback Golf Club commit to Ventrac: Ladybank Golf Club, situated in wooded heathland 10 miles west of St Andrews in Fife, is the latest prestigious Scottish golf club to purchase Ventrac equipment to assist in the maintenance of their challenging heathland championship course.

Designed by Old Tom Morris, Ladybank is a rare course; although situated in Fife, it’s not one of the famous links courses that dots the coast. It measures almost 6,800 yards from the championship tees, making great use of its heathland terrain and has changed little over the years. It requires the golfer to display real precision to hit the small and contoured greens.

Ladyback Golf Club commit to Ventrac

Ladyback Golf Club commit to Ventrac

Grant Frogley is the Course Manager and is responsible for a team of 8 full-time greenkeepers, who maintain this beautiful and challenging course. During the winter of 2021-22, the club purchased an ex-demo Ventrac 4500 all-terrain compact tractor and two attachments to help maintain the course.

“I’m one of the many converts to the Ventrac compact tractor and attachments,” he said. “We had two rough mowers when I came in, each one for different areas of the course. We’re a relatively flat site in terms of elevation, but we do have quite a lot of subtle movement with some extreme hollows and bumps. The rough mowers weren’t the best at following contours, so we found ourselves doing a lot more hand work.

“I’d seen the Ventrac at a demonstration at Gwest and knew it would be the perfect piece of kit here; a versatile machine that could do more than one task. We got it in on demo and sure enough it flew round, coped with every contour out there, without a problem.

“We’ve got the Contour deck and the Tough Cut deck. We use the Tough deck a lot during the winter to clean up the woodlands and remove the gorse and broom. We basically cut everything that’s not on the maintained grass areas. We cut every blade of grass during the winter, so it’s very versatile and mobile for getting in amongst the trees. As I said previously, it’s very good at removing brash, gorse and broom.

“It came with a rear three-point linkage kit, which is brilliant. We bought a small sprayer with hand lance that hooks up on the back of it and we also have a terra rake, which we use a lot during winter projects, especially if we’ve got soil that just needs a tilth-up before we re-turf. It’s brilliant and such a light footprint, it just glides over the surface.

“The options are endless; we’ve demoed the stump grinder and blower. We’ve got a rear-mounted blower on a tractor, and perhaps it’s just my age, but I find looking out the back for a period of time is very uncomfortable. The seating position on the Ventrac is very comfortable and the out-front blower makes it much more user-friendly. We’ve had nothing in the way of breakdowns, servicing has been fine, one little repair on the deck and it’s hardly missed a beat.”

Grant began his career at Gleneagles in 1999, working under Peter Pattenden, and six years later went to New Zealand for a year, before returning to Gleneagles at a time when the renovations for the Ryder Cup were taking place, remodelling the PGA Centenary course. This led to construction work at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club near Dublin followed by a spell in Sweden constructing the PGA of Sweden National Golf Course near Malmo.

Returning to the UK, he was appointed deputy course manager at Gwest, where a new championship course was being built next door to Gleneagles. Gwest never materialised into the great golf course and property that it could have been, so he took up his first course manager’s job at The Roxburghe in the Scottish Borders. Three and half years later he returned to Gwest as course manager, with a commitment from the owners that it would be completed. Covid struck and, and unfortunately, progress with the development stalled, so in 2021 he applied for, and was successful in securing, the vacant course manager’s position at Ladybank.

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Hundreds of brands commit to GroundsFest

Hundreds of brands commit to GroundsFest: Over 100 exhibitors have booked to attend GroundsFest 2023 with more confirming their presence each week.

The event, which is the talk of the industry, will be held at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire on 20 and 21 September 2023.

Hundreds of brands commit to GroundsFest

Hundreds of brands commit to GroundsFest

Over 9,000 square metres of space has already been taken by a wide range of exhibitors with over 75% of allocated space accounted for as the event continues to grow.

These impressive figures are testament to just how well the show has been received by the industry. Close to 5,000 visitors, which includes grounds staff, greenkeepers, landscapers, local authorities, estate managers and contractors, have already signalled their intention to attend by registering for the GroundsFest visitor newsletter.

Attendees can expect to see hundreds of brands at the event. Some of the latest names to confirm their presence at GroundsFest include Honda, STIHL, AMS Robotics, The Pitchmark Group, KAR UK, Wicksteed Leisure, ICL, Dennis & SISIS, Shelton Sportsturf Drainage, Origin Amenity, Kress UK, EGO, Makita, Greenbest, Soil Scout, Karcher UK, Foley Grinders, RT Machinery and Etesia UK.

Commenting on Etesia UK’s decision to exhibit at GroundsFest, Managing Director Les Malin, said:

“I believe GroundsFest could be exactly what the groundscare industry needs in terms of trade shows. We have all been attending the same existing shows which have not changed for several years. Therefore, I think we should all be looking forward to something different.

“There is no such thing as too many shows in my opinion; it is more about having events that work for individual companies. We are all different, but we all want to give our customers the chance to experience something new and exciting. GroundsFest will offer exactly this.”

The indoor halls and outside areas of GroundsFest will not only feature hundreds of exhibitors and products in action, but it will also include a free-to-attend LANTRA accredited education programme, free practical training sessions, the largest retail area ever to be seen at a groundscare event, a dedicated landscaping zone, a music festival and much more.

Commenting on the event’s promising start, GroundsFest’s Event Director Christopher Bassett, said: “GroundsFest continues to grow, and the sales team are receiving new enquiries every week. We have also been upbeat about how much interest we are receiving from visitors. There promises to be a diverse visitor profile at GroundsFest this year and we can’t wait to see the magic unfold in September.”

For more information, please visit www.groundsfest.com

You can also follow GroundsFest on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @GroundsFest for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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