Tag Archive for: Park

Tewkesbury Park get the break they need

Tewkesbury Park get the break they need: Protruding roots on fairways and approaches were causing mower damage and affecting play at Tewkesbury Park, but the Imants RootPruner supplied by Campey Turf Care Systems, provided a clean and easy solution.

Removing roots meant excavating around the area, which would cause disruption and look unsightly. For Course Manager Paul Hathaway this was unacceptable because it was at odds with his standards.

Tewkesbury Park get the break they need

Tewkesbury Park get the break they need

The golf resort was recently voted number 50 in the Todays Golfer best golf resorts in Great Britain and Ireland. Keeping these standards on the 6554 yard, par 72 Deerpark course meant finding a solution, and Paul found it in the RootPruner.

“We noticed the roots protruding through the surface of a few approaches and fairways, and these kept being caught by the mower, damaging the blades and putting the mower ‘off-cut’,” Paul explained.

“This was more noticeable during the drought we had last year. We tried to dig and cut them out, but the mess looked unsightly and didn’t stop the roots from coming back. I always feel prevention is better than cure, so I decided to search for a machine to cut the roots near the canopy of the trees so we wouldn’t damage the health of the trees but stop the roots from encroaching into play.

“In the past, I have used an excavator to create a root break, but the disruption this caused wasn’t suitable to the standards we expect the course to be in, so we needed a machine that would create a root break but be efficient, neat and tidy.

“With the RootPruner, we were able to get around the entire course with ease and were very surprised how quick it was. The roots we went over have been removed, so we don’t have any protruding the surface, and so far, we don’t have any new roots coming through, so I am hopeful this will continue.”

The RootPruner cuts roots up to 100mm in diameter with no clean-up, making it useable on the course with no worries of shutting holes through surface damage. It also has the ability to decompact tight, narrow areas with ease and includes a unique patented triple-reduction planetary gearbox for smooth, maximum torque drive to the rotor shaft. The RootPruner also features a factory set, torque limiting PTO shaft eliminating all shear bolts and spring clutches.

For a parkland course, it can be an invaluable machine. Paul heard about it from a club in the local area who have shared similar results, and seeing it on his property once was enough to convince him to purchase his own unit.

“Once we had the demo, we were very impressed with the smoothness, cleanness and size of the roots it would cut,” he said.

“I would definitely recommend the RootPruner for any parkland golf course. It’s a machine that is so quick and easy to use, it will save you downtime and money on repairing mowers which are damaged from hitting tree roots, and also make the surface better from not having roots protruding through the surface.”

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Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration: Playing ‘catch up’ is a necessary evil for many turf professionals. Whether juggling weather windows, staff availability or extended playing schedules, quite often something falls behind.

Happily for the team at Woolley Park Golf Club, Wakefield, the delivery of a new Terra Spike in November, and four months of constant hole punching, has them ahead of the curve with their advanced aeration programme.

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

Terra Spike GXi8 HD helps Woolley Park advance aeration

The West Yorkshire club is a family run business which features a challenging 18-hole course, and a measured Par 3 course, in the spacious and peaceful setting of an old deer park. The site is beautifully landscaped and ringed by trees.

This season, John Rowbottom and his team of four greenkeepers and apprentice, retired their long-standing greens aerator and separate fairways machine selecting the Wiedenmann Terra Spike GXi8 HD to replace both.

John Rowbottom, head greenkeeper, said:

“Over the last 8 months aeration across both our courses was taking too long to complete. Being a 27-hole golf centre, we need speed on the greens. Previously to get around them all could take 3-4 days; and it was a job no one wanted.

“In seasons past, we tried a shallow aerator, which was quick, but didn’t give sufficient depth. Last year with Balmers GM, Wakefield, we looked at what was on the market, favouring the ’two birds with one stone’ option and happened upon the GXi8 HD, with its access all areas credentials.

“We knew it was fast and incredibly smooth and were excited for its great results and minimal disruption, so reducing the impact of maintenance work on our golfers.

“All in we have 22 hectares of fairways and 3 hectares of greens.  Since November, we have achieved an aeration pass on the greens in each of the four winter months, varying depths as we’ve gone. We’ve also covered the fairways twice. During the last week of November, we hired an additional GXi8 from our dealers, Balmers to take best advantage of a weather window: completing one full rotation. We’ve been out with Our Terra Spike pretty much every day since, and have now two full circuits across booth courses.

“Our whole ethos is investment into the golf course. Our greenkeeping team are resourced with the machines they need for task.  Through sheer volume of work we’ve got through ten sets of tines, but the upside is we’ve an exceptional volume of holes in the ground. We’ve literally hammered holes in every square inch of this place but we are better for it. It’s helped no end to get that little bit of extra depth.

“The Wiedenmann has revolutionised the way we aerate. If we set our minds to it, with an early start and a late finish we can get all 27 greens done in a day, rather than the three to four days it took previously.

“Covering fairways used to be a two-to-three-week job and if you got bad weather in and amongst then heaven help you!

“Now the job is much less frustrating and takes less than a week. The team feel they are making real progress rather than plodding at a slow speed.

“On the fairways ideally, we only want to work the soil up to 15 cm. Ninety-five per cent of our land is built upon coal measures sandstone so we are just hoping to prick through the top soil and then let the stone layer do its thing. We have the off fairway where we know we have a clay pocket. On those we’ve been able to drill down to full depth; getting as deep as we can to help mother nature.

“In our part of Yorkshire we’re the last golf course to shut for rain and the first one to reopen after it.

“Aeration really is essential. With wetter winters and golfers wanting to play longer into the season, the GXi8 just brought us straight back up to speed. Keeping the surface open and, keeping it free draining in combination with managing footfall really helps.  The Wiedenmann is a real eye opener and fantastic piece of equipment.”

Darren Barker, Sales Director, Balmers GM said:

Thank you to John, Philip & Jane Rowbottom and the team at Woolley Park Golf Club for their purchase and positive feedback. We knew this machine would work hard and be put through its paces. The Wiedenmann is all about speed, reliability and increasing aeration productivity.”

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GroundWOW® helps celebrate St. George’s Park anniversary

GroundWOW® helps celebrate St. George’s Park anniversary: When the F.A Group Marketing Department wanted a grand scale commemorative design on the centre of pitch four at St George’s Park, North-West technology innovators GroundWOW® were very happy to take the call.

Using their SFX ULTRA™ model, GroundWOW® printed the tenth anniversary design directly onto the perfect canvas of pitch four at one of the world’s leading training and educational establishments. Created pixel by pixel, the image contained the highly detailed design intricacies of the Three Lions as part of an activation that measured a whopping 21 x 17M in size.

GroundWOW® helps celebrate St. George’s Park anniversary

GroundWOW® helps celebrate St. George’s Park anniversary

The whole activation was a class act completed in time for the Home of England Football to welcome The Prince of Wales, President of the F.A. His Royal Highness observed activities across some of the venue’s 13 outdoor pitches, full-size indoor 3-G pitch, and indoor Futsal arena to celebrate the occasion.

GroundWOW’s Chief Commercial Officer, David Pritchard, said it was “an enormous privilege for us to contribute to this event. Our technology is aimed at all sport and so much of our inbound interest has in fact come from football. It was a real pleasure to be on site and a great opportunity for us to showcase what we do at the home of the nation’s favourite sport. None of this was lost on the whole team at HQ, all of whom were immensely proud to have helped create this grand scale art”.

The Staffordshire facility oversees the development of elite English football in a performance-first environment, a fitting location therefore for GroundWOW® to demonstrate its transformative technology that is taking on the sports sector with a performance-first approach.

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Deere keeps park in great shape

Deere keeps park in great shape: Multi award-winning Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) attracts half a million visitors annually to its 500-acre estate near Wakefield.

Fashioned around 18th century Bretton Hall, the Grade II listed historic park and garden features 100 sculptures and installations scattered across the valley destination, with north and south sides sloping down to two ornamental lakes.

Deere keeps park in great shape

Deere keeps park in great shape

This year YSP celebrates its 45th anniversary. The Park opens every day except 24 and 25 December, so the eight-strong grounds team knows the work to keep presentation pristine rolls on relentlessly.

Diverse demand across the Park stretches from amenity grass and close-mown turf to formal gardens, arb work, water management and even a living roof on The Underground Galley, notes Mark Chesman, Head of Estates and Projects, who started life here as a landscape co-ordinator.

“Exhibitions and events run year-round,” he says, “and visitors expect everything to look clean, tidy and well-maintained to set the sculptures off in their best light.”

Handling the scale of the park’s upkeep depends on minimal machinery downtime and helping the team in that capacity is a full, flexible service agreement with local John Deere dealer Balmers GM.

A longstanding Deere customer, YSP had no hesitation moving across to Balmers when it opened a branch locally in 2015 after the previous dealer closed.

“All the Deere kit is exceptionally reliable,” Mark says. “Balmers are just a phone call away if we have any snags and they respond swiftly with fast turnaround on machine replacements.”

The cost of the annual service, undertaken in autumn/winter when summer’s heavy footfall lightens, is spread over 12 months, “which helps improve cashflow and gives us added peace of mind in knowing what the outlay will be”, Mark adds. “We replace older machinery as and when we need to, with new Deere units, such as our wide area and front deck mowers, covered by JD Powergard protection.”

The fleet of five diesel Gator TH 6x4s does the donkey work of transporting equipment, tools, material and green waste around the park. “The tipping facility is particularly useful, while the Gator’s six tyres ensure lower ground impact in the more sensitive areas of the site,” Mark says.

Under his mission to switch over to electric tools and machinery, Mark has started the process by adding a Gator TE to the fleet. “Our environmental policy and action plan is designed to reduce fossil fuel use and minimise our impact on the climate,” he explains.

“The Gator TE delivers zero emissions, has less vibration and is cheaper to run because it is a far simpler vehicle – just a battery and motor. It’s charged up overnight using a three-pin plug and we get a full day’s work on that – particularly important because of the size of the Park.”

Covering the 30 hectares of grassed open space around the hall is the JD 1600 turbo mower, with front and two side decks, supported by a 1580 ride-on collector mower, which Mark says is “a fantastic machine that comes into its own at the start and end of the season and to ensure the Park is tip-top for exhibitions”. Summer and other peak periods see the Deere mowers on duty trimming the overflow car park, meanwhile.

Under Balmers’ aftercare service, the park team attend an on-site induction programme when new machinery is delivered, followed by an in-house equivalent that includes a rundown on tyre checks and grease points, ensuring everyone’s fully competent.

John Deere’s 997 zero-turn ride-on handles the critical cutting in confined spaces, Mark says. “We want to be able to operate in ever tighter areas, as the complexity of maintaining the park rises. The 997 is coming up for replacement so we’ll be discussing options with Balmers soon.”

For some work, machinery and tools cannot replace the age-old traditional methods, Mark explains. “The team has to keep a safe distance from the sculptures when using ride-ons.

“Close cutting is completed with hand shears as we cannot risk even the slightest chip on any of the artworks.”

YSP includes works by British and international artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore (one of the largest open-air displays of his bronzes in Europe).

The Park manages a stand of historic woodland of high conservation value that numbers native species such as oak, ash, beech and hornbeam, with some veteran specimens estimated to be more than 300 years old.

“All trees on the estate are surveyed regularly. We have 2,000 parkland individuals, excluding the woodland,” says Mark. “Our longstanding arborists, Earnshaws, manage the large mature trees, while everyone is qualified to complete ground level work up to 380mm.”

With a board of trustees whose members include the present Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, YSP has every opportunity to wax lyrical about its many qualities but Mark does a pretty good job himself.

“This is a wonderful place to work and members of staff tend to stay here a long time [Mark himself has clocked up 17 years] to face the everyday challenges of what is a complex though beautiful place.”

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St George’s Park chooses Dennis E-Series

St George’s Park chooses Dennis E-Series: Andy Gray, Head of Grounds and Estates at St. George’s Park, believes that Dennis Mowers got everything absolutely right in producing its new range of battery-powered mowers – the E-Series.

Built in 2012 and set in 330-acres of stunning Staffordshire countryside, St. George’s Park is the home of England’s national football teams. Overseeing a team of fourteen members of staff, Andy Gray is the man responsible for the upkeep of all the pitches and landscaped areas.

St George’s Park chooses Dennis E-Series

St George’s Park chooses Dennis E-Series

Andy joined 21 months ago from Southampton FC, where he had responsibility for St. Mary’s Stadium and the Staplewood training campus. Throughout his tenure, both were highly regarded as outstanding football facilities, and he admits there were not many jobs to tempt him away from Southampton FC.

“I was never actively looking to leave Southampton FC,” he said. “However, I always saw the position at St George’s Park as one of the top jobs in this industry, so when I saw it available, I thought it would be good to prove myself somewhere else.”

Once settled into the position Andy felt the time had come to start exploring the idea of introducing battery-powered mowers.

“There were a number of reasons for wanting to go down the electric route,” he said. “The real motive though was for employee welfare in terms of noise and vibrations. There were also the emissions to consider, as well as the environmental impact, the sustainability, and the rising cost of fuel.”

As a long-term user of Dennis Mowers, Andy was quite certain on what brand of battery-powered mowers he wanted.

“I have used the Dennis G860 cylinder mowers since 2001 and when I moved here there was already a fleet of nine G860’s and four Dennis PRO 34R rotary mowers. I felt it was a no-brainer to stay with Dennis.”

Leaving no stone unturned, Dennis Mowers spent three years working with carefully selected partners to develop a range of quality battery-powered equipment befitting of the Dennis badge. The aim was to provide a reliable and long-lasting solution with the ultimate performance that helps professionals meet sustainability and environmental initiatives, reduce carbon footprint, emissions, running costs and noise without any range anxiety.

“It was obvious Dennis took their time to do their homework, due diligence, and all the testing to make sure they got it absolutely right. This was really positive from Dennis – they made sure they were selling the finished article.”

Andy chose to purchase two Dennis ES-860 cylinder mowers from the ES range.

This 34” battery powered turf management system delivers maximum versatility and the range of 13 interchangeable cassette options provide a solution to many day-to-day maintenance tasks such as cutting, scarifying, brushing, sorrel rolling, and verticutting.

Furthermore, traditional G860 cassettes will also fit the ES-860, meaning that customers will not have to purchase additional cassettes.

A robust LCD keypad screen is an integral feature of the handlebar console providing the operator with a multitude of information options including speed, clip rate, service checks, lifetime running reports and battery information.

“We use them daily in the same way we use the G860’s, whether it be for cutting, brushing or verticutting. Battery range is so important because if you are over the far side of the site and you’ve got two or three pitches to cut, then it is imperative that it lasts. The ES-860’s haven’t run out on us yet.

“They have also come in handy when the England senior team are here,” Andy continued. “Media activities take place on the indoor pitch which is right next to the senior team’s training pitch. We would always be preparing the pitch for their next training session and would be constantly asked to stop because the mowers were making too much noise. With the ES-860’s, we no longer have that problem.

“As a company, Dennis is fantastic – the factory is nearby and the service, backup and parts department have always been second to none.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Dennis on Twitter and Instagram @DennisMowers and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/DennisMowersUK. You can also view the latest Dennis videos by visiting www.youtube.com/DennisMowers

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