Tag Archive for: New

New Greenkeeping Director At St Andrews

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New Greenkeeping Director At St Andrews: Sandy Reid has been appointed as the new director of greenkeeping at St Andrews Links. Sandy’s new role at the course, known as the ‘Home of Golf’, is one of the most prestigious roles in golf course management in the world.

An experienced figure in the greenkeeping industry, Reid will make the move from Carnoustie Golf Links where he has worked as links superintendent since 2012.

St Andrews Links chief executive Euan Loudon said: “We are delighted to welcome Sandy to the Home of Golf. He has an outstanding track record at Carnoustie Golf Links, as evidenced by the wonderful condition of the Championship Course for the 147th Open Championship this summer.

“Sandy has a great deal of experience of operating within a multi-faceted golf venue such as ours and shares our commitment to delivering unique and memorable experiences to every golfer. He is passionate about the game of golf and is committed to delivering the highest quality results in golf course maintenance and improvements to all our courses, operations and staff.”

Reid originally hails from Blair Atholl and trained at Elmwood College in Fife before starting his career at Letham Grange. He joined Carnoustie Golf Links in 1997, becoming head greenkeeper of the Championship Course in 2005.

Mr Reid said: “I am extremely honoured and excited to be joining the hard working and dedicated team at the Home of Golf.

“St Andrews Links is the pre-eminent public golf complex in the world and I hope to play a small part in ensuring that it continues to deliver excellence to all golfers and visitors who come to the Home of Golf.”

Over the last decade St Andrews Links has continued to make major investments in its facilities and services. In addition to maintaining seven public courses, St Andrews Links is now home to three clubhouses, five shops and the Golf Academy. It employs just over 400 people in the high season with almost 230,000 rounds of golf played on the six 18-hole courses in 2017.

Reid’s appointment arose following the retirement of incumbent Gordon Moir, who has worked at the venue for more than 26 years and began his tenure as director of greenkeeping in 2000. Reid will take up his new role in December – the same month that Moir will formally retire.

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New H&S Guidelines May Save Lives

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New H&S Guidelines May Save Lives: An updated set of health and safety guidelines aimed at turf professionals ‘could save lives’ in the wake of a major review.

The Greenkeepers Training Committee (GTC) has launched a free-to-use web-based platform created by the Xact Group that aims to ensure golf club employers un­derstand their roles and responsibilities towards health and safety with regard to golf course maintenance.

New H&S Guidelines May Save Lives

In 2017, the GTC’s Board of Directors commissioned a review of the highly-acclaimed Health and Safety Guidance Notes and the committee is pleased to announce the release of the updated guidelines.

The GTC first worked together with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 1994 to produce the first edition of the Health and Safety in Golf Course Management and Maintenance booklet. By 2000, the health and safety consultants to the GTC, Jon Allbutt and John Davies, were commissioned to review the materials, in line with the many changes in legislation that were happening at that time.

While much of the guidance and best practice was still relevant, the GTC felt it appropriate to review and update and refresh the look and accessibility of the guidance notes.

The GTC consulted with Chris Hammond, health and safety director at The Xact Group, to build on what has been produced before and help to design and implement a web-based platform. The Xact Group work with BIGGA, England Golf, Scottish Golf and Wales Golf in the build and support of their health and safety online systems and provision of additional onsite health and safety and human resources services to member clubs.

GTC Chairman Alistair Booth said: “The aim of the newly-published guidance notes has been to give anyone at a golf club, or associated with a golf club, an overview of their roles and responsibilities towards health and safety and best practice. They have been moved to a web-based platform, making them easier for everyone to access.

“With increasingly-complex machinery and other tools being used on golf courses, these guidelines are hugely important in ensuring all involved in the management of a golf club understand their specific responsibility in keeping staff and golfers safe. As such, if these new guidelines are followed correctly, they could save lives or at least reduce the risk of serious incidents taking place around the golf course environment.”

The web-based platform is packed full of information and guidance on all aspects of golf course management and maintenance, covering areas such as: roles and responsibilities; legislation; greenkeeping safety; events; clubhouse management; establishing a health and safety management system.

The new website can be accessed by visiting the GTC’s website and clicking on the Health & Safety link. Visitors who require further guidance, such as risk assessments and template documentation, can consult their relevant full guidance Health & Safety website, such as BIGGA, England Golf, Scottish Golf or Wales Golf.

The GTC Work Equipment – Record of Training and Competencies wallchart has been a feature in greenkeeping facilities for a number of years. The wallchart is used to aid with the recording of staff training and competence and will continue to be a useful tool. The wallchart can be purchased from the GTC shop online.

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Jensen Launches New Website

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Jensen Launches New Website: Jensen Woodchippers are pleased to announce the launch of a new UK website. The new site will be dedicated to showcasing the wide range of chippers available to industry professionals across the country.

With a simple to navigate structure, the new website enables users to view details on all the Jensen machines available to the UK market in towable, tracked or PTO configurations, ranging from sub750kg towable 6” chippers right through to powerful 12” models on hydraulically adjustable tracks. Visitors can also find out more about Jensen’s ability to custom build chippers to individual specification featuring cranes, conveyor belts, chip storage containers and much more.

Jensen Launches New Website

Not only that, booking a free, on-site demonstration has been made easy with an online form available on every page which sends your request straight through to the Jensen UK team for a quick response. Alternatively, for those who prefer to talk on the phone, you can call and speak to a Jensen representative right here in the UK with contact numbers available for the team.

For those seeking to contact their nearest Jensen dealer, the ‘Find a Dealer’ page provides addresses, telephone and email details for each of the current Jensen dealers, a list which will continue to grow with new dealers sought to increase support and sales coverage for customers in new areas.

Bill Johnston, Business Manager for Jensen UK is thrilled with the new digital presence, commenting: “This new website is hugely exciting, creating a really useful resource for both Jensen chipper users and for our dedicated dealers. The website is easy to navigate and contains a great deal of useful information, which can only help to promote this premium brand. As the brand continues to grow throughout the UK we shall ensure the website develops at the same speed. 2018 continues to be a great year for Jensen!”

Cees De Kock, Export Area Sales Manager for Jensen in Germany added, “Jensen’s portfolio of machines is very extensive, and a good website is very important to share information on all of the options available to customers. This new Jensen UK website demonstrates just that, and we are sure it will be very useful for customers in the UK seeking to learn more about the wide range of chippers we can provide.”

Established in northern Germany in 1884 by Peter Jensen, Jensen machines were the very first woodchippers in the world, specially developed for local authorities to maintain the public spaces around his hometown of Maasbull.

In the 130 years since their initial development, Jensen woodchippers have spread across the world, and in 2017 management of the UK distributorship was given to T H WHITE Machinery Imports Ltd.

The Jensen brand in the UK has seen great success over the past year under T H WHITE Machinery Imports stewardship and the development of a new UK-based website will support the business’ focus on further increasing visibility within the UK market along with helping existing Jensen owners to find and contact their local dealer for sales and service support.

Visit the website at www.jensenchippers.co.uk

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New John Deere Turf Outlet Opens

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New John Deere Turf Outlet Opens: New Forest Farm Machinery Ltd, a John Deere dealer, has recently opened a new turf equipment outlet. Based at Cadbury Business Park in Sparkford, near Yeovil in Somerset, the premises serve the dealer’s extended trading area that was initially established in 2014 after New Forest took over the professional turf business of Rochford Garden Machinery.

The dealership offers John Deere’s full range of professional golf and amenity turf equipment including mowers, aerators, sprayers, tractors and Gator utility vehicles, as well as homeowner and construction equipment.

New John Deere Turf Outlet Opens

Based at Ringwood in Hampshire, New Forest Farm Machinery has been a John Deere agricultural dealer since 1979 and has held the turf franchise since John Deere’s commercial and consumer equipment business, as it was then known, started in 1986. New Forest currently employs 43 people altogether and sells to turf customers in the counties of Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.

“As a long established, independent family-owned business we are always striving to improve our company offering, through focusing on customer support and investing for the future,” says managing director Ed Smales. “The new premises at Sparkford are ideally located to cover our extended trading area and increase our presence in the marketplace.

“We intend to maintain our traditional high standard of product sales, parts and service support in the various turf equipment markets that we serve, and we look forward to welcoming both existing and new customers to the dealership.”

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

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Benefits Of Germinal’s New Ryegrass

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Benefits Of Germinal’s New Ryegrass: On Thursday 6th September, Germinal will be attending the FutureScape Scotland show, incorporating ScotHort, at the Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, with a focus on its upgraded range of landscaping mixtures, with a particular emphasis on the inclusion of new-for-2018 creeping perennial ryegrass cultivar, Zurich, which offers increased wear tolerance and fast sward recovery.

Zurich scores 6.5 for live ground cover and 6.3 for visual merit, making it one of the best-performing creeping perennial ryegrasses on Table S1 of the BSPB’s Turfgrass Seed 2018 booklet.  It is a fine-leaved variety that also exhibits high resistance to insects and nematode attack due to naturally high endophyte levels, as well as good persistence and a creeping growth habit which aids sward recovery.

Benefits Of Germinal's New Ryegrass

Zurich now features as standard in three of Germinal’s landscaping seed mixtures; A3 Embankments and Drought, A18 Road Verge & Embankments and A19 All Purpose Landscaping (see below for full specifications).

“A3 has traditionally been the industry’s go-to seed mixture for stabilising embankments due to its high percentage of creeping fescues and bentgrasses which bind the soil together,” explains Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal.  “The addition of Zurich gives this popular seed mixture the added benefits associated with a perennial ryegrass: speed of establishment, the ability to germinate in colder temperatures, and the ability to rapidly recover from damage caused by excessive wear.  For A18 and A19, the addition of Zurich further enhances the ability of these mixtures to recover from wear with minimal intervention.

“Zurich exhibits an excellent creeping habit, which binds manufactured soils together quickly and effectively thereby preventing gully erosion and loss of soil.  It’s ability to self-regenerate gives added protection during the winter and slowly helps damaged swards to repair themselves with minimal additional physical intervention.  It also makes the improved seed mixtures more effective in cooler temperatures at the beginning and end of the growing season.”

Germinal’s landscaping seed mixtures can be ordered online from the company’s new website (www.germinalamenity.com) which also contains all the information landscape architects need to optimise the performance of their amenity facilities: the website includes complete specifications and usage guides for Germinal’s Grade ‘A’ range of landscaping grass seed and wildflower mixtures for everything from low maintenance reclaimed land to saline road verges, shaded habitats, fine lawns and an array of natural habitats.  All product details can be easily cut and pasted into external documents, making it simple for landscape architects to insert them directly into the appropriate project specification.

“As well as constantly investing in research and development to bring first class grass and wildflower seeds and turf care products to the landscaping sector, we are also conscious of the constant need to provide the industry with the latest news and advice,” Richard Brown adds.

Benefits Of Germinal's New Ryegrass

“The new website has therefore been developed to make it easier for new and existing customers to keep abreast of our developing range of products and to enable them to specify the most appropriate products to suit each site’s individual requirements.

“We’ve populated the new website with a collection of advice guides and video resources covering a range of useful topics from simple over-seeding and sowing ‘how-to’ guides, to more detailed explanations of the importance of key success factors such as soil pH, the use and application of macro and micro nutrients and how to physically manage recently renovated and established swards and amenity landscapes.”

The website also contains a selection of standardised fertiliser plans – written and designed by Germinal’s FACTS (Fertiliser Advisers Certification and Training Scheme) qualified experts – to enable everyone from novice gardeners to professional turf growers to get the best results from their amenity facilities.

The new www.germinalamenity.com website also features a ‘Product Selector’ tool which has been designed to make it as easy and simple as possible for landscape architects to find the most appropriate grass or wildflower products for each project’s specific needs.

A range of CPD resources and seminar details has also been added: landscape architects can contact their local Germinal technical specialist who will be happy to visit them to provide more detail on a range of topics such as how to establish and maintain wildflowers and understanding the latest plant nutrition protocols.

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