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Fast Grow Fertiliser Expansion

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Fast Grow Fertiliser Expansion: Fertiliser entrepreneur and founder of the Fast Grow Fertiliser brand, Shane Walsh has announced the expansion of his business into the professional pitch care market in Ireland and the UK.

Established as one of Ireland’s foremost suppliers of seaweed fertiliser, The Fast Grow Fertiliser Company already has a significant presence amongst Irish and UK garden retailers. Now, thanks to a sustained enquiry from the professional pitch care market Walsh, who founded Fast Grow in 2015 is now ready to expand into this important Irish market. Commenting on the effectiveness of his seaweed fertiliser Walsh says, “We produce 100% natural fertilisers with absolutely no artificial additives. Regardless of the weather, Fast Grow will continue to benefit the soil for 8 weeks, whereas with artificial fertiliser, if you get a good shower of rain, it will be washed through your pitches.” 

Fast Grow Fertiliser Expansion

Walsh believes that the growing interest amongst those who manage pitches in Ireland is partly due to the fact that there are significant environmental concerns over using artificial fertilisers and weed killers. Walsh suggests that “using natural products for pitch care is a great marketing message for any sports club and really captures the concerns and mood of the public about protecting the planet.”

Fast Grow Seaweed Plant Fertiliser is particularly effective on pitches where there is a heavy concentration of sand to aid drainage. Artificial fertilisers are typically leached through the soil quickly leaving the grass vulnerable to attacks from pest and diseases which in the past would have been treated with chemical sprays. Now with the reduction in the use of pesticides pitch care is more problematic. However using Fast Grow will improve the soil to the point where the grass will be healthy and strong and less susceptible to pest and diseases.

Fast Grow Seaweed Plant Fertiliser is available as a granular product, especially crumbed for pitch application and is available in either 10kg bags or 1000 kg bulks bags.

For further information visit www.fastgrowfertiliser.com

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Tickets Selling Fast For IOG Awards

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Tickets Selling Fast For IOG Awards: The Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) Industry Awards celebrate a 10 year anniversary on October 31 at the Hilton Metropole hotel at the Birmingham NEC, and tickets are selling fast for the event on the evening of the day one of SALTEX.

Celebrating the achievements of volunteer and professional grounds teams, as well as community clubs and national stadia, the awards will be hosted by Mark Saggers from talkSPORT radio, and comedian, writer and actor Tom Allen will be providing the after-dinner entertainment.

Tickets Selling Fast For IOG Awards

Tom will be presenting his unique style of sharp, acerbic wit and camp, as well as riotous storytelling to the audience of groundscare devotees and sports administrators and personalities.

He started as a stand-up comedian at the age of 22 and went on to win So You Think You’re Funny in Edinburgh and the BBC New Comedy Awards. He has since performed to audiences around the world and has appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Mock the Week, The Great British Bake Off’s Extra Slice, Celebrity The Crystal Maze as well as the John Bishop Show, Channel 4’s Comedy Gala and Just a Minute.

To secure your seat at the celebratory event – which cost £95 each for IOG members and £190 each for non-members – please contact the IOG by email (awards@iog.org) or call 01908 312 511 where you can also gain details of how to become an IOG member.

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Surbiton Fast Forward With Toro

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Surbiton Fast Forward With Toro: When it comes to course machinery, Surbiton Golf Club has done things in the same manner for many years. But times are now changing, beginning with the delivery of its first full fleet. The lease deal with Toro and Reesink Turfcare is a statement of the club’s desire to deliver a golfing experience to members that will be the envy of other clubs in the Surrey area.

When Andrew Kerr joined the club in Chessington as head greenkeeper, he went straight to work with the Greens Committee to deliver a complete overhaul of the way the club acquired and replaced its machinery.

Surbiton Fast Forward With Toro

Clint Whittaker, club secretary, explains: “We used to purchase machines outright when required, as part of our capital investment plan. This meant we had machines of varying ages, some of which couldn’t provide Andrew with the performance he needed to deliver the course results we expect. So rather than just replace a few machines, we decided to acquire a whole new fleet that is optimised to meet the very high expectations of our members.”

Andrew, who is currently finalising his qualification as a master greenkeeper, says: “There’s a great deal of choice for players, so it’s imperative to be the best you can be on the budget you have. We’re not one of the biggest clubs, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have the best presented course around. I was determined to bring the best machinery to support our course maintenance regime. I wanted to show the membership what’s possible when you have the right equipment.”

As a club owned by its members, this change in policy had to not only win over the committee, but 700 members too. Andrew continues: “It only took one viewing of the latest Toros, brought in by Reesink, to convince everyone that Toro was the brand to go with to raise the bar. I’ve found the management and the members to be entirely supportive, and when it came to the benefits of a lease agreement they were in absolute agreement. Our Toro fleet is delivering what I believe it should. The new technology we have at our fingertips means the greenkeeping team is making a real difference to the playability and quality of the course.”

Clint agrees: “All in all, we could see this was an investment in the future of the club we had to go with.”

Included in the fleet are four Greensmaster 1000 and three Greensmaster 1600 pedestrian mowers, two Reelmaster 5510-D ride-ons, two TriFlex 3420 hybrids, one with an 11-blade set-up and one with an eight, a Groundsmaster 4700-D, two Groundsmaster 3500-D mowers and a Multi Pro 5800-D.

Mike Taylor from Reesink Turfcare says: “Andrew came to us with a clear vision of what he wanted the machinery to achieve.  It was a joint effort between Reesink and Surbiton Golf Club to make sure he got everything on that list to realise his vision. It was a big step forward for the club and provides real certainty that the greens team can meet member expectations.”

So, where there is a will there is a way. You don’t need the biggest budget to get the equipment you want, or the finish you feel your members deserve. Look at the options with your management committee and where relevant the membership. Find the best people in the dealer and distributor network to talk to about what you want to achieve and consider that, just like a picture, a demo is worth more than a thousand words.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Fast Greens At Knole Park GC

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Fast Greens At Knole Park GC: Located within the boundaries of Knole Estates in 1,000 acres of outstanding Kent parkland and with 600 deer roaming freely around the estate is a club like no other. 

Knole Park is one of the most unique courses in the country; not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also for the fact that this one course plays home to two clubs. 

Fast Greens At Knole Park GC

Course manager at the club, which is home to Knole Park Golf Club and Sevenoaks Town Golf Club, is Gavin Kyle who has been at the club for 15 years. Gavin keeps a regular annual machinery replacement programme and this year he had a focus on choosing the right machines to create firm, true, fast surfaces, which is where Toro joins the story.  

 “It is important to consistently maintain a challenge for players,” says Gavin. “It’s for this reason that recent years have seen us extend the course by 200 yards, with further extension planned in the next year. There is a fine balance between offering a good game to all golfers, including those with a five handicap and below. We have players of all abilities across our two-club membership including a lot of scratch players and our greens needed an update this year to offer a consistent challenge to all.  

“When choosing our next greens machines we checked out the market, going through rounds of demos from distributors. If I’m honest I haven’t bought Toro since I’ve been at Knole Park, so for 15 years! But Toro is renowned for its greens machines in particular so were naturally included on the demo list. What appealed with the Greensmaster TriFlex 3420-H machines, which we went for, was that they’re hybrids. I sought to reduce the risk of hydraulic leaks on the greens and I wanted the advanced control these machines can offer.” 

The TriFlex Hybrid’s electric cylinder circuit is designed to eliminate up to 90 percent of hydraulic leaks, and the Turf Guardian leak detection system provides immediate audio and visual indication of possible leaks. Plus, the electric cylinders have less drag and spin more freely than hydraulic motors providing a sharp cut which leads to firmer and faster greens, exactly what Gavin is after. “Firm, true and fast greens is what we’re all after and the Toro TriFlex is helping us achieve this at Knole Park,” he confirms.  

Providing the advanced control Gavin mentioned is the machines’ Info Centre, which has an easily customised clip for different heights of cut as well as other operational settings to give complete machine control on cylinder speed, hours of function, system voltage for cylinders and diagnostic descriptions. It’s this that provides the advanced control that appealed to Gavin in the TriFlexes.  

But as Gavin goes on to say, it’s never just as simple as the machines: “A machine is often only as good as the backup that comes with it. We’re dealing direct with Reesink Turfcare for the first time and we’ve found that to be a great experience so far.” 

It seems opportune that Toro arrives back at Knole Park for the first time since the 1970s in the year that it hosted the Tillman Trophy, the tournament widely attributed to changing the face of amateur golf. We’re sure with Toro on side, Gavin and his greenkeeping team of six will change the challenge of the course for all its members.

For more information, visit: www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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