Tag Archive for: Integral

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

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ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood: Ashley Oakes, Course Manager at Wychwood Golf Club, has explained how an integrated turf management programme from ICL helped him to rebuild the course after an extreme summer drought.

In the summer of 2018 golf clubs faced an unprecedented two-plus months of extremely hot and dry weather. Many courses were left brown, damaged, and susceptible to disease – Wychwood Golf Course, in Weston, Crewe, was no exception.

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

ICL integral to rebuild at Wychwood

“We had so many weeks without any rain, and it is safe to say we got fried,” said Ashley.

“We lost a substantial amount of grass, and it gave us a chance to reassess everything. It was time to hit the default button and restart.”

It was at this point that Ashley got in touch with ICL and he admitted to being instantly impressed by the company’s ‘work ethic and policies.’

Phil Collinson, Technical Area Sales Manager for ICL, visited Ashley shortly after the drought and it wasn’t long before a plan was devised.

“I listened to the challenges that Ashley faced and then put together a bespoke plan to solve those issues,” said Phil. “We identified the correct products and together we sat down to look at all the trial data behind them. When the stakes are so high, Course Managers haven’t got time to gamble. That was certainly the case at Wychwood.”

Ashley claims that it would be difficult to highlight every product in the integrated turf management programme but provided an overview on how some of them have made a difference.

As a wetting agent, he relies on ICL’s H2Pro TriSmart, which he aims to apply at a rate of 10 L/ha once a month from March onwards. It is formulated with three water management surfactant technologies to provide great water penetration, even water spread through the rootzone and to improve the water holding capacity of sandy rootzones.

“We’ve got USGA sand-based greens here and we needed something that would deal with that level of construction,” he said. “TriSmart gives us that consistency throughout the rootzone, it gets rid of that dry patch, and it gives us the required effect for what we want both visually and for the grass. It has also meant that we have irrigated less.

“With such big undulating greens, to get consistency across such large areas I think speaks volumes for the TriSmart technology.”

Once Ashley knew there was a wetting agent in place that would perform, his next focus was to ensure there was a product in the programme that would help to negate any stresses. For this reason, Phil recommended Vitalnova Links – a unique formulation consisting of Vitalnova Blade and Vitalnova SMX.

“We brought Vitalnova Links in to improve the heavily stressed situation on the greens and it helped them to recover,” said Ashley. “We needed the plant to be healthier but not receive the kick that a conventional fertiliser would do. Instead, it helps to reduce stress on the plant and get that health in a natural way. It has worked so well, and we even incorporate this product into our Primo Maxx II growth regulator programme on the greens.”

In terms of a granular fertiliser, Ashley knew exactly what he was looking for during the cooler months of the year.

“I wanted health, vitality, and presentation through the whole year including winter, and this is why we use Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4-0-8,” he said.

“Using this product has improved turf quality and performance through the challenging autumn months and helps to drive that recovery growth before we switch to liquids in the summer.

“One thing I have noticed is that in challenging conditions, ICL’s granular fertilisers still work whereas other brands will scorch and cause discolouration. You will never get that with an ICL product.

“Modern greenkeeping puts us in a position where we need to rely on quality products and that is why we continue to use ICL.”

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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Jacobsen mowers integral to Bay Hill

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Jacobsen mowers integral to Bay Hill: Every March, the world’s leading golfers gather in Florida for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and they compete on a course prepared with Jacobsen mowers.

Bay Hill Golf Club and Lodge’s Director of Grounds, Chris Flynn, has been at the club since September 2014 and in that time has seen Matt Every, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, and most recently Tyler Hatton triumph.

Jacobsen mowers integral to Bay Hill

Jacobsen mowers integral to Bay Hill

But regardless of who comes out on top, the third-generation superintendent knows that everyone in the field expects perfection, and he gives it to them using Jacobsen.

“Bay Hill has had such a longstanding and successful relationship with Jacobsen, and Mr. Palmer personally had a long relationship with Jacobsen, and any property he was affiliated with carried the Jacobsen name with it.

“The impact of Jacobsen on what we do here year-round and especially for tournament time is beyond critical.

“If Jacobsen makes it, then it’s probably here. 22inch walk mowers, 26inch walk mowers, the triplexes, I’m a fan of the GP400s, fairway mowers, AR3, AR5, AR7s – so yeah, I can’t really think of anything that Jacobsen makes that we don’t have here and use on a daily basis.

“The Arnold Palmer Invitational is certainly one of the most tenured tournaments on the PGA Tour, and expectations are perfection. For us, it’s quite the process to do the build and set-up, it’s about a two and a half month process, and it takes about that same amount of time to break that down

“It requires additional support and equipment support, and the role Jacobsen plays in that is huge. Our mowing schedule ramps up. Mowing in the mornings and then mowing again in the afternoons, and that’s pretty much everything – tees, fairways, approaches, and greens.

“Obviously the equipment we need to rely on but then there’s the service side and having the support that we need with the equipment we have special tournament support. Having boots on the ground to help us and Jacobsen has always done an outstanding job in being there for us.

“The reliability has always been there, the reel technology is second to none, ease of maintenance and diagnosing issues when there are problems to making repairs to the ultimate use of the equipment and the quality of cut, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the assistance of Jacobsen.”

The latest edition of the tournament will be the 43rd played at Bay Hill since 1979, when it began life as the Bay Hill Citrus Classic. One hundred and twenty golfers will have the opportunity to receive the red cardigan sweater given to the winner in memory of Arnold Palmer, with twelve of the world’s top twenty-five ranked golfers among them.

For more information about the machines used at Bay Hill, visit www.jacobsen.com.

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MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

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MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos: Ryan Golding, head groundsman at Leeds Rhino’s and Yorkshire Carnegie’s Emerald Headingley Stadium, believes that Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed has been integral to the success of the pitch.

Ryan has been working at the stadium for fifteen years and has occupied the position of head groundsman for the last four. With two deputy’s underneath him – Dan Connor and Leon Pearson – Ryan and his team tend to the stadium pitch, two first team pitches, four academy pitches, a 3G pitch and the Stanningley rugby league club – where the Rhino’s academy teams play.

MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

“On average with both first teams and academy games we host around 50 – 60 games,” says Ryan. “In addition to that we also have under 19 games, community games, disabled rugby games, and also events. This year when in mid-season the pitch was transformed into a Bollywood film set as a 1930`s hockey pitch. It is a very intense work place and it never stops but it’s interesting, challenging and enjoyable.”

With such a heavy fixture list, renovations largely depend on available windows but Ryan tends to aim for June each year. However, where many groundsmen may have extended periods throughout pre-season, Ryan has as little as 26 days to get the pitch up and running again.

“Getting the right seed is key and that is why I use Limagrain’s MM60,” he says. “We had been with another seed supplier for a number of years but I felt we needed a change to keep on improving. I looked into it and spoke with other groundsmen who use Limagrain and received nothing but excellent feedback.

“As a groundsman I’m very open to what I use and I don’t mind taking a risk but I’ll do my research first. Before I did anything I got some samples of MM60. We trialled it in a tough area in the North East corner which is consistently in the shade and we saw great recovery rates.”

Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed is renowned for producing an excellent playing surface in a stadium environment. It is a 100% Ryegrass formula which is perfect for renovation and divot repair, has a high disease resistance, fantastic aesthetic qualities and offers extremely fast germination – which is boosted by the inclusion of Headstart® GOLD. Developed using the latest scientific findings and field experience, it is a natural revolutionary grass seed treatment that ensures rapid germination and is perfect for enhancing performance on grass seed coatings for sports fields, golf courses, lawns and amenity turf.

MM60 Integral For Leeds Rhinos

“The germination is incredibly fast and I’ve noticed a particular improvement in the centre spot,” says Ryan. “You would not believe the hammering that area gets. A lot of the time you find that kick off’s go straight out which means that there are scrums straight over the centre spot. It was always a problematic area in the past but MM60 has made a noticeable improvement especially when combined with sheets and lighting rigs.

“I’ve also noticed that it doesn’t fray the leaf edge when compared to our previous seed so we tend not to get as much disease – we hardly encounter any leaf spot as a result from stress and there is no yellowing of the leaf either.

“I think my priorities have changed as I’ve got older and wiser. It’s all very well wanting the pitch bright green throughout the year but you are stressing the pitch in doing so and is it really needed for a game that isn’t televised? I’m not so sure. For me, aesthetics isn’t my priority sometimes, it’s all about the recovery and germination and MM60 provides me with this.”

Furthermore, Ryan was quick to praise the customer service he receives from Limagrain.

“Suppliers have to understand the needs of the pitch and the Limagrain team know the standards here which certainly helps – the back-up is great. I can call them whenever I want and we will normally start with a general discussion about rugby before going into the technical side of things. Personally, I think that Limagrain treats each and every customer the same – and that is a fine art if you ask me.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.lgseeds.co.uk/amenity

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