Tag Archive for: In

Golf Club Ends 2017 In Style

/in /by

Golf Club Ends 2017 In Style: Modry Las Golf Club has ended the year in style after picking up a top award at a gala evening which celebrated the very best of international golf tourism. The West Pomerania Gary Player-designed course was named Poland’s best golf course at the World Golf Awards in Spain after a series of exciting developments at the resort and a bumper year on the course.

It is the latest in a line of awards secured by Modry Las since it was officially opened by Player in 2009. Earlier this year Modry Las received one of Poland’s top honours for its nine-hole championship course in miniature; Orli Las. This latest accolade from the World Golf Awards points towards ongoing improvements that have been supported by an internationally recognised design.

Golf Club Ends 2017 In Style

“Over the last eight years, Modry Las has been on a journey which has been underpinned by Gary Player’s fabulous design,” said Arthur Gromadzki, chairman of Modry Las. “That has been the foundation on which we have grown the resort. We have used the momentum created by Mr Player’s fantastic layout to develop the resort through on-site accommodation options, property opportunities and our wonderful nine-hole course. Modry Las has grown into an internationally recognised resort, but it all began with his vision.”

As Chris Frost, managing director of the World Golf Awards, noted, this latest honour confirms worldwide recognition for the resort. “Well-deserved congratulations to Modry Las on its success at the 2017 World Golf Awards,” he said. “Poland’s Best Golf Course is a prestigious international award that places Modry Las firmly at the top of the golf tourism industry.”
As well as picking up awards, Modry Las has also seen substantial increases in the number of rounds played, especially by visiting golfers. For instance, the number of green fees sold grew by a healthy 22% in 2017 while the number of rounds played as part of a stay-and-play package soared by 73%.

The impetus generated by the 18-hole signature course at Modry Las shows no sign of slowing down, especially during 2018 which is set to be another decisive year for the Polish resort. “The progress made at Modry Las has been significant and has resulted in us welcoming more golfers to play our courses,” continued Gromadzki. “Nonetheless, I am particularly looking forward to 2018 and the opening of our clubhouse. This is the next stage in the evolution of Modry Las and a pivotal point in its development.”

The clubhouse is due to open during the summer of 2018 and will act as a focal point for members, visitors and corporate clients with spacious reception areas and panoramic views. A sports bar, lounge areas, extensive changing facilities and a specialist golf boutique will elevate service levels once again, while 11 luxurious guest suites will provide additional accommodation just yards from the first tee and last green.

The contemporary country lodge will include an indoor golf practice studio, private-dining room as well as a 70-cover restaurant and terrace featuring international cuisine served with the best of Polish hospitality.

“This exciting project has been in the pipeline for a number of years,” said Gromadzki. “We wanted to get the feel of the place just right so that members and guests would feel at home, but also indulged. Our temporary clubhouse has been a great asset, but the new clubhouse will take the experience at Modry Las to another level.”

A number of smaller, but no-less important projects have preceded the clubhouse development, including the installation of a dedicated Tesla charging station at the West Pomeranian resort, which is now part of the Tesla Destination Programme. Elsewhere, the resort’s facilities have been photographed by award-winning photographer Mark Alexander who has not only captured the beauty of the championship course but has also taken the first images of the highly-anticipated clubhouse.

“It is always a great privilege to photograph Modry Las,” said Alexander. “The course has matured well and is looking terrific. The new clubhouse provides a fantastic backdrop to the closing hole, which was part of this year’s brief.”

Gromadzki agreed. “The photography taken by Mark has been viewed around the world, and I think his new set of images will generate even greater interest in Modry Las. In particular, he has used the light to capture views of the course that have never been seen before and reveal for the first time the new clubhouse.”

For more information, visit: www.modrylas.pl

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

Follow us on Twitter 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.

Newcastle Receive Best Pitch In 15 years With MJ Abbott

/in /by

Newcastle United Football Club Receive Best Pitch in 15 years, working with MJ Abbott: Newcastle United’s stadium manager, Eddie Rutherford, has hailed the new SIS Grass pitch at St James’ Park, installed by MJ Abbott and Premier Pitches, as the best in his 16-years at the club.

St James’ Park sits in the centre of Newcastle as a monument to football, with progress being made under Rafael Benitez after bouncing back from The Championship at the first time of asking in 2016/17.

Newcastle Receive Best Pitch In 15 years With MJ Abbott

Results on the new pitch have been promising through to the end of October, seeing three wins, a draw and one loss, but the decision to install a new irrigation system and playing surface was taken at short notice and required swift planning and cohesive team work between MJ Abbott and Premier Pitches, with the result delighting Eddie and the club.

“We are extremely happy with the pitch, it’s played really well,” Eddie said. “It’s probably the best the pitch has been since I’ve been here, and I know it hasn’t gone through the winter period yet but at the same stage in the last 15-years it hasn’t been any better.

“We did the job at very short notice. We decided to put the SIS Grass pitch in with only four weeks’ notice, so considering the time they had to get everything organised and put in place I couldn’t fault them.

“My only worry was that when you put two companies together, will they work well together. But they were both spot on throughout the project. When one is getting towards the end the other needs to be ready and mobilised and that worked really well, it couldn’t have worked any better.

“MJ Abbott come as a partnership with Premier Pitches when installing SIS Grass pitches. Premier Pitches have done a lot of work in the past with us and do our end of season renovations, but I know MJ Abbott are good contractor so I was quite happy to work with the two combined”

Nathan George, Contracts Manager at MJ Abbott explained “The project comprised removing the existing fibre sand surface down to a suitable depth as to expose the existing drainage slits. This operation had to be very carefully completed as to not destroy the integrity of the retained drainage.”

“A new fully automatic pitch irrigation system was installed and an imported rootzone laid to re-establish the original pitch levels. Premier Pitches completed the preparation and seeding of the new pitch, which delivered the project a week ahead of the proposed programme”

“The SISGRASS stitching was installed following grass establishment, a process that took 7 days”

The quick planning required for the project was helped by Premier Pitches’ experience at the city centre venue, and director, Russell Latham, commended the work of the design team in the build-up to the start date.

“The design team needs to work well together from the outset, especially on this project because of the time scale, but more importantly the men on the ground need to work in harmony from start to finish.

“Newcastle United have been a long-standing client of Premier Pitches so the pitfalls of working at a city centre Premier League stadium were well known. Nevertheless, without the rigorous planning and logistics from the outset things still could have gone wrong.

“The logistics of plant deliveries, material removal and material deliveries all had to be scheduled to the second to ensure that the project ran smoothly.

“We have worked with MJ Abbott on our prestigious pitch construction projects for over five years now. Their efficient and meticulous way of approaching a product from design and planning to delivery is everything that our key clients want to see but it doesn’t stop there. The back-up and support and knowledge is second to none.”

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

For the latest industry news visit turfnews.co.uk

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

Follow us on Twitter 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.

Oxford United Groundsman On A Career In Grass

/in , /by

Pitch perfect: Oxford United’s groundsman on a career in grass: There is a sign stuck to the whiteboard behind Paul Currier’s desk which reads ‘Every day is a holiday for a man who loves his job’.

Five minutes with the head groundsman at Oxford United is enough to know it is not a hollow statement.

Currier, 58, is in the 40th year of a career which has taken him from school pitches to a host of Football League clubs – including tomorrow’s opponents Northampton Town – via a spell tending the lawns at Northamptonshire Police’s headquarters.

For someone who is quick to admit he was not the most academic at school, it has been quite a journey.

“I’ve always had this philosophy that if you get up in the morning and can’t wait to get to work then you’re enjoying your job,” Currier says, leaning back on a desk chair in his office, tucked under the East Stand.

“You’ve got to be dedicated. It can be seven days a week, it can be 12 hours a day and it’s not one of the best paid jobs in the world.

“But I’m passionate about my football and I’m passionate about my grass.”

Those who look after pitches tend to have a gruff demeanour, forever barking at people to ‘keep off the pitch’.

 But then they have plenty to worry about.

Currier, who reckons he walks 15 miles on a matchday to prepare the pitch, said: “All groundsman are the same, we’re all classed as grumpy sods.

“You have to police it because otherwise everybody will go on.

“They’ll think ‘it looks all right, I’ll go on it’, but you don’t see the damage until Christmas, so you’ve got to keep the traffic to the minimum.

“I have a checklist that I do pre-match, everything’s done, but you’ve still got that worry at the back of your mind.

“You wince when players go into the back of the net and they pull themselves up with it. It just pings everything off.

“The worst nightmare for any groundsman is to be called on while the game is going on.”

Then there are pests and diseases to lose sleep over, but his main obsession is the weather.

Pitch technology has improved markedly in the last 20 years, with the Kassam Stadium among the increasing number of surfaces in the Football League to mix the grass with artificial fibres.

Currier, brought in when the pitch was completely relaid by GreenFields in 2015, checks the forecast every four hours in the winter months.

And here, the Kassam Stadium’s open western end can be either a benefit or a hindrance.

He said: “I’m pretty confident you won’t get a game called off here for waterlogging.

“Because the pitch is so wide open to wind, it can dry twice as quickly as anywhere else.

“You can get a downpour while you’re playing and it won’t affect it, barring the odd splash.

“Temperatures drop and there’s constant shade down one side – because of the South Stand – which is two degrees colder than the other side.”

While he is a West Bromwich Albion supporter, spending so much time at a club tends to create a bond.

But United have had a stronger pull than most, as the first club where he is invited into the manager’s office after games.

He said: “I’m lucky here at Oxford because they treat me as one of the team, there’s a good rapport with the managers.”

Given the expertise built up over four decades, you might presume Currier has a perfectly-tended lawn at home in Northamptonshire.

“No, mine’s artificial,” he grins.

“When I’m at work I’m constantly thinking about grass, so when I’m at home I just like to chill out and relax and go ‘I shan’t be cutting that today’.”

Even for a man who is always on holiday, there are limits.

Click here to read the original article

For the latest industry news visit turfnews.co.uk

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

Follow us on Twitter 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.

Polaris Judged Best In Show

/in /by

Polaris Judged Best In Show: The goal at the Kennel Club’s Emblehope and Burngrange estate in Northumberland is to create a Centre of Excellence for gundog training. It’s a long term project but when you look around it’s easy to see why the area has so much potential.

Bracken filled gullies, rough pasture, expansive wetlands and heather all contribute to offering training opportunities for gundogs of any age or stage. The estate has recently invested in two Polaris off-road vehicles, a Ranger 6 x 6 and Sportsman 570 ATV, supplied by authorised Polaris dealer Davies Tractors of Riding Mill, to help manage the beautiful moorland which stretches to around 7,550 acres. Emblehope is a busy, working hill farm with sheep and cattle.

It is also a site of Special Scientific Interest so it is important to minimise damage to the ground in maintaining the estate. A gamekeeper for over thirty years on a number of estates across Scotland, Raymond Holt, as full-time gamekeeper at Emblehope, has the task of ensuring this.

Polaris Judged Best In Show

“We needed a vehicle to carry loads across the estate without tracking and causing erosion,” he says. “Crates of partridges for release pens, pen sections, bags of feeding, water, people and dogs during training and competitive events – it’s all in the day’s work and we judged the Polaris Ranger  6 x 6 to be the best for what we do.”

The Ranger fulfils a lot of roles. It’s out at night on predator control, negotiating difficult terrain and going places even the quad can’t go, taking on steep gradients in the knowledge there is the comfort and safety of the cab. It boasts a powerful 40HP 800 twin engine with EFI for fast starts, 907 kg of towing capacity and a rear dump box capacity of 567kg. The Polaris Sportsman 570 on the other hand is used as an all-purpose vehicle for carrying smaller loads on quicker journeys around the estate.

“The Polaris is a brilliant quad,” says Raymond, “very capable with a big wide platform and very stable. We use it for feeding the pheasants – we have fitted a spinner on the back for broadcast feeding – and as a general patrol vehicle.”

As a Centre of Excellence for Working Dogs, Emblehope welcomes the full range of working dog activities such as Field Trials including Pointer and Setter Spring Stakes, gundog working tests and training days, live game training days and working trials through to shooting and gundog activities. The shooting estate offers pheasant and partridge shooting while the varied terrain and woodland cover offer opportunities for all breeds of gundog to demonstrate their natural working abilities.

Polaris Britain: 0800 915 6720 www.polaris-britain.com

For the latest industry news visit turfnews.co.uk

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

Follow us on Twitter 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.