Tag Archive for: Plays

Salsco plays pivotal ‘roll’ in retaining post-Open standards

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Salsco plays pivotal ‘roll’ in retaining post-Open standards: From the moment James Bledge took over as Links Manager at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, it was all eyes on preparation for the 151st Open Championship.

From the moment Brian Harman lifted the Claret Jug in July 2023, the focus changed onto how to retain the top-level presentation and play for members to enjoy! Part of solving that equation has been a Salsco HP11-III roller which is delivering unparalleled productivity and unprecedented progression in greens speed.

Salsco plays pivotal ‘roll’ in retaining post-Open standards

Salsco plays pivotal ‘roll’ in retaining post-Open standards

James first came across Salsco rollers in his previous role at Royal Cinque Ports and, while rolling didn’t play a major part in preparations for the Open, he knew it was the solution to retaining standards. “Hand cutting again and again is the way to go when resources are high, however, when you only have five staff in on a Saturday morning and you’re trying to recreate similar conditions for people travelling hundreds of miles to play the course, it’s simply not feasible. The HP11-III with three wide rollers allows us to deliver the greens to an incredibly high standard and has been pivotal to retaining the post-Open ‘buzz’.”

The Salsco HP11-III roller features three oscillating rollers which articulate to guarantee 100% roll to ground contact. With a combined rolling width of 73” and an almost 11mph ground speed, it delivers efficiency and quality with every roll, on every terrain. “We’ll use the Salsco two or three times during the week and after mowing ahead of weekend competitions for that extra bit of greens speed. We also roll throughout the winter instead of cutting to retain presentation and minimise plant stress” James explains.

“In terms of operation, it’s the comfiest roller on the market in my opinion. Because of the mounted brush system, it’s also the cleanest, dispersing any debris pick-up meaning we can use it after sand-dressing, verti-cutting and grooming operations. It’s gone from being a two-person job, to a one-person job.”

He adds, “There’s also evidence to suggest rolling can reduce the impact of Dollar Spot so, in conjunction with careful nutritional management, we’ve been rolling prone areas to remove moisture and create conditions less conducive to the disease.”

James also had good things to say about the service received from the importers Lister Wilder, having used them at his previous club. “They have always been a good company to work alongside – at the end of the phone if we ever need anything and with the right support and answers to any questions we may have.”

For more information on the self-propelled Salsco roller range, available exclusively in the UK via Lister Wilder, visit salscorollers.co.uk 

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VGR TopChanger plays its part in Open preparations

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VGR TopChanger plays its part in Open preparations: Preparations are well underway for the 152nd Open, taking place at Royal Troon this July. The Old Course has undergone some alterations since it last hosted the prestigious event back in 2016 including eight new tees and an overall lengthening of the course to just under 7400 yards.

Another new addition is a VGR TopChanger to the machinery shed of Course Manager Billy McLachlan and his team. He explains how the purchase of the TopChanger has significantly enhanced drainage and firmed up the playing surfaces since its delivery in September 2022.

VGR TopChanger plays its part in Open preparations

VGR TopChanger plays its part in Open preparations

Widely recognised as of the greatest links courses, Royal Troon are hosting the Open Championship for the 10th time in 2024 – the preparations for which are on track and in safe hands under Billy’s stewardship, who has been at the venue for over 40 years. In that time, he’s witnessed much in the way of technological development when it comes to maintenance equipment. “Sand injection is something that I looked at probably 12 to 15 years ago but, at the time, the machinery just didn’t deliver” he says. “More recently, effective solutions have become available bringing multiple benefits to plant health and the profile more generally. We’d been utilising the services of a contractor to conduct the operation for us, who did a good job but in wanting to increase the frequency in line with R&A recommendations, it became more economical to explore purchasing a machine of our own.”

Following an impressive demonstration, the club opted to purchase a TopChanger from VGR Equipment. The TopChanger uses high pressure waterpower to aerate the soil, with the option to simultaneously fill the channels with wet or dry sand – preventing anaerobic conditions, improving drainage and diluting organic matter throughout the profile. “Tom Peter from VGR brought the TopChanger in and we immediately thought it was brilliant. The flexibility of having our own machine, meaning we could conduct passes more frequently and, importantly, when the weather conditions were right made both financial and agronomic sense.”

“We were out in the Autumn of 2022, conducting one pass at a depth of 10” and a secondary pass at a shallower 3” before the weather turned” Billy explains. “Autumn 2023 saw us completing a further four passes on all 18 greens. Compared to other methods of aeration, the surface disruption is minimal and isn’t too much of a drain on our available labour and resources. The results are speaking for themselves, emerging from a very wet winter with the greens performing exactly as we need them to.”

He concludes, “It’s already proven to be a brilliant investment, which will also be put to good use on the Portland Course as well as the Old Course again later this year. The support from VGR throughout has also been first-class.”

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Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

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Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB: ICL’s Riptide, the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass, has been a key player in the development of the greens at the stunning JCB Golf and Country Club.

Set amid the lush green rolling countryside of Staffordshire lies one of the most exciting new golf courses to be built in the UK over the last decade. No stone has been left unturned in the creation of this remarkable 18-hole course designed by British architect Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design.

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

“This is a high end facility that people might only visit once a year or even just once in their lifetime. The whole experience has to be there and it is down to us to deliver that on the golf course,” said Callum Wark, Golf Course Manager.

No doubt those who play the course will be fully immersed in the experience and will marvel at the imaginative design concepts of the course. It is also inevitable that the course will provide the backdrop for compelling drama to unfold – history will be made and the finest players in the world will steal the limelight but the unsung heroes responsible for this magnificent course deserve every bit of credit.

The story that will not be told, is that throughout this four year journey, the greenkeeping team at the JCB Golf and Country Club have been involved in the whole construction process from start to finish.

“Myself and four senior greenkeepers were equally involved in all aspects of construction,” said Euan Grant, General Manager. “We had all been around constructions in the past but none of us had ever had direct construction experience. For greenkeepers to jump on excavators and dumpers, and to be ploughing and turning soils over is really quite remarkable. We have been fully engrossed in the project working seven days a week making the best of the weather when we can.

“It is a heavy clay site so we had to work when it was dry. If we got two days of rain then we couldn’t work for ten days and if that meant working at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night then we were working at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night.”

It is no wonder that Euan, Callum and the team speak about their involvement with an overwhelming sense of pride. After all, they have helped to create a world-class golf complex that will stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best. However, these modest greenkeepers are not allowing themselves to get that far ahead…yet.

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

“The tournaments will happen but first of all we need to achieve agronomic excellence,” said Euan.

“In order to achieve that, and in order to host tournaments, you have to be in that top percentile of golf course reputation and quality,” added Callum.

With the construction coming to an end, their attentions quickly turned to ensuring that they had the correct suppliers and products in place which would indeed help them to reach that top tier – and the greens were the first port of call.

In order to select the ideal grass seed for the greens, Euan created a trial area and split a nursery into five different rootzone amendments which consisted of a profile product – which was porous ceramic, a green waste product, two zeolite products and a straight sand. Six different grasses from six different suppliers were then applied to the rootzone plots.

“We monitored the germination rates, density, colour and disease to find out which product would be the best for our site,” said Euan. “We didn’t put any fungicides on them throughout winter because we wanted to know which diseases would be more prevalent. Based on all of the results, and also by looking closely at which was the strongest grass coming out of winter, we decided that we would go with ICL’s Riptide on a green waste compost / sand mix as per USGA specification.”

Exclusive to ICL, Riptide is the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass variety, it is ideal for seeding new areas or when used for interseeding as part of a course renovation programme. This fine-leaved, densely-shooting, creeping bentgrass establishes quickly, especially in spring, growing upright but low to the ground with high tiller shoot density and keeping its bright mid-green colour right through autumn and winter.

Riptide responds very well to lower nutritional inputs and less frequent watering, potentially significantly reducing costs involved in a higher maintenance programme and offering a more sustainable approach; less fertilizer, fungicide, scarification and verti-cutting.

Furthermore, Riptide was given top rankings for quality of appearance and disease resistance by the The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) and the United States based National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP).

Riptide Plays Key Role At JCB

Sowing at an application rate of between 6-8g/m², the team at the JCB Golf and Country Club used Riptide to seed and grow-in eleven greens in the first year and then nine the following year.

“We were germinating in five days and mowing in ten days,” said Euan. “Because it was our first year and it was a soft opening, we were under no pressure whatsoever to cut the grass down to achieve fast speeds. However, we were still getting 10.5ft without significantly chasing that. It is an incredibly fine grass.”

“We haven’t looked back,” added Callum. “The rooting has been amazing – we are 300mm of rootzone over 100mm gravel and even now, a year on from opening, the roots are way down into the gravel. They are incredibly strong roots.”

Commenting on the use of Riptide at the JCB Golf and Country Club, Emma Kilby, Technical Area Sales Manager for ICL, said: “I’m really proud that Riptide has played a big part in the greens here and the development of our seeds is growing all of the time – you just have to look at the new cultivars we’ve got which have a very high rating within the STRI.

“It has been incredible to be involved from the very start. From coming in here and just seeing clay to where they are now is a fantastic achievement. JCB is a great company to work with, in terms of their history, their ethos and their direction.”

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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