Tag Archive for: Success

Bunkers ensure success at Marco Simone course

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Bunkers ensure success at Marco Simone course: Although the Covid-19 pandemic means it will have to wait another year until it hosts the Ryder Cup, preparation of the Marco Simone course in Rome continue apace.

All eighteen holes of the new-look course, designed by European Golf Design, opened for member and guest play earlier this month. And Dave Sampson, of European Golf Design, says the course’s bunkers, which have been built using the Capillary Bunkers lining system, are performing particularly well.

Bunkers ensure success at Marco Simone course

Bunkers ensure success at Marco Simone course

“The first nine holes – actually the back nine of the course – started construction in August 2018, and were all grassed by the end of summer 2019,” says Sampson. “A couple of major storm events set those holes back a little, but they were all in play last summer. The second phase construction started in autumn 2019 and finished during summer 2020. Phase three, the practice greens, is currently being finished, though architect Sampson, prevented from visiting the site by the pandemic, has been approving the works via drone footage. The course is planned to make its public bow this September when it plays host to the European Tour’s Italian Open.

Sampson says: “We have been in daily contact with the guys from contractor SOL Golf who have been on site, so finishing the final greens remotely has been OK. Nothing of the original course has been retained – every hole except for the sixth plays in a new corridor.”

He adds that the choice of Capillary Bunkers as a liner was an easy one. “I have had really good success with Capillary on previous projects, including the Evian resort in France and Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland,” he explains. “Evian and Marco Simone have quite a lot in common, in terms of weather patterns, so it was a pretty good model. The amount of maintenance time post storms is minimal compared to what it was before.”

Designing a course for a Ryder Cup is rather different to building a normal course, Sampson says: “On a normal project, you’d be looking for the best eighteen holes, pure and simple. Here, you’re looking for the best eighteen holes that can deal with 50,000 spectators. So the routing is quite challenging, but that said, there are not long walks between greens and tees. This is a 27-hole project, so the extra nine gives us space for the range, the spectator village and the like. And you need to build the course to be extra resilient in terms of weather – there isn’t a lot of extra daylight to play with given the time of year a Ryder Cup is played, so the course needs to be playable quickly even in the event of severe weather. That’s one of the benefits of using a liner like Capillary Bunkers.”

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GGM Group celebrate charity success

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GGM Group celebrate charity success: A Lancashire based business is ending the year on a high and celebrating raising over £10,000 for charity over the past two years – despite the restrictions caused by the global pandemic.

Colne-based GGM Group selected three charities to support, pledging to raise over £10k through an intensive programme of activity. After a great start in 2019, the business was determined not to be hampered by lockdown restrictions in 2020 and came up with their own ingenious ways to fundraise.

GGM Group celebrate charity success

GGM Group celebrate charity success

The businesses annual charity walking event was rethought with MD Chris Gibson travelling from his home town of Lancaster to the businesses’ head office in Colne and then back again covering a distance of 104 miles –  through a combination of cycling and walking. He was joined at different points on his journey by different members of staff undertaking different legs in pairs, to enable social distancing.

The business has thought further outside of the box in it’s fundraising efforts with a team of staff pledging to lose weight in aid of charity.

The fundraising has raised money for charities who are finding themselves cash-strapped during these difficult times. Greenfingers is the company charity for the second year running,  dedicated to supporting children who spend time in hospices around the UK, along with their families, by creating inspiring gardens for them to relax in. In addition, funds have also been raised for St John’s Hospice in Lancaster and Pendleside Hospice in Burnley.

Chris Gibson explains more:

“It’s a key part of our ethos at The GGM Group to give something back to the community and we are delighted to have been able to achieve our charity target, despite these difficult times. Now, more than ever, charities need our support and we are delighted to have still been able to help”.

The GGM Group has worked hard to find ways to keep the business operating this year, and  throughout the pandemic has worked hard to keep the whole team together, maintain its commitment to excellent customer service, and, where it was safe to do so, keep machines operational for professional and domestic customers throughout the season.

The company has also started recruiting again and are aiming to help some of the younger members of the local community with apprenticeship opportunities.

In addition, the business made a pledge during lockdown to become an eco-friendly organisation and strive to improve its green credentials even further, through a range of initiatives including electric vehicles, a wildlife wellbeing oasis at the Haydock branch and the recent installation of solar panels.

The GGM Group consists of two businesses across two depots. PSD Groundscare is the national distributor of specialist landscaping equipment, including AS Motor and Eliet, Koppl and TS Industrie. GGM Groundscare is a specialist supplier of tractors and high-quality professional land-based equipment for commercial and domestic use. Servicing the North West and Yorkshire, it supplies a range of products from leading franchises including Kubota, Baroness and Amazone.

Chris Gibson concluded:

“There is no dispute that this has been an incredibly challenging year for most businesses. I’m incredibly proud of how our team has pulled together and hitting our charity target really is the icing on the cake. Like most people, we can finally see light at the end of the tunnel and I’m confident of a bright 2021.

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Scottish turfgrass demo day a success

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Scottish turfgrass demo day a success: More than 100 greenkeepers, groundsmen and grounds maintenance contractors from across Scotland attended an amenity demonstration day at Falkirk Tryst Golf Club on 11th March, with those who braved the day’s stormy weather able to see some of the latest golf and sports pitch specific machinery and turf renovation equipment in action.

Featuring a range of machinery demonstrations from a wide selection of industry-leading suppliers, the maiden ‘Scottish Amenity Demonstration Day’ was jointly organised by Germinal GB, Allgrass Turfcare and Campey Turf Care Systems. The event was also sponsored by Cub Cadet, Seddon, Fairways GM, Fleet Line Markers and Steadfast Site Supplies and was kindly hosted by Falkirk Tryst Golf Club.

Scottish turfgrass demo day a success

Scottish turfgrass demo day a success

“Despite the weather’s best efforts to disrupt proceedings, the inaugural Scottish Amenity Demonstration Day was a great success,” explains Alan Thomson, Technical Sales Representative for Germinal in Scotland. “As a group of like-minded suppliers, we recognised that there are no amenity specific events in Scotland where greenkeepers, groundsmen and turf care professionals can talk to multiple manufacturers and suppliers in a single location.

“We therefore worked together to organise the free-to-attend event to give visitors the chance to talk freely with a range of manufacturers about the latest golf and sports-specific grass seed mixtures and to see a selection of cutting-edge turf maintenance machinery – including the latest electrical and emissions-free equipment – in action.”

John Rushforth of Allgrass Turfcare extended a special thank you to Falkirk Tryst Golf Club for hosting the event: “Head greenkeeper, Gary McCandless and his team worked miracles to ensure that, despite heavily waterlogged ground conditions and torrential rain in the days prior to the event, the majority of demonstrations were still able to go ahead.

“Unfortunately, the wet conditions did prevent some machines from operating, but the sheer number of attendees proved there’s a clear appetite for this type of event in Scotland and we are already discussing the potential for future events.”

“Feedback from the event has been extremely positive,” added Richard Heywood of Campey Turf Care. “It was genuinely very gratifying to see so many faces from within the Scottish amenity sector coming together to learn about new developments within the industry and to try out the latest amenity-specific kit. This type of event is as much about networking on a semi-social basis as it is about promoting the latest machinery, and we look forward to organising similar open days in the future.”

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ICL’s quadruple success

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ICL’s quadruple success: ICL Turf & Landscape is celebrating the success of four members of staff after two became FACTS Qualified Advisers and two were awarded their Full BASIS Amenity Advisor Awards.

BASIS is an independent standards-setting and auditing organisation for the pesticide, fertilizer and allied industries. It offers a range of recognised qualifications for people working in those sectors, including the BASIS and FACTS schemes, and manages the Professional Register for qualified advisers.

ICL’s quadruple success

The BASIS Award is the national qualification for all those advising on the use, selling or supplying of plant protection products in the amenity industry. It is designed to enhance the understanding of turfgrass management, pest, weed and disease control, environmental issues and legislation. Those who gain the certificate become members of the BASIS

Professional Register; and newly added to that list are Matt Nutter and Andrew Pledger, ICL Technical Area Sales Managers operating in South Central and South East England.

Barry Browne, ICL’s Landscape & Industrial National Sales Manager, and Craig Lalley, Technical Area Sales Manager for North/East successfully completed the Fertilizer Advisers Certification and Training Scheme (FACTS).

FACTS is available to those who have already qualified for the BASIS Professional Register and want to gain Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. The course builds on an individual’s prior level of agronomic knowledge and candidates must have at least one year’s experience of fertilizer and nutrient management planning in the UK.

Successful FACTS participants demonstrate a full understanding of the role of fertilizers on the main crop groups in the UK and are able to make recommendations that are agronomically, economically and environmentally sound.

ICL strive to provide high quality products that perform, where all claims are based on extensive research and to be progressive and responsible with their advice and in order to achieve this, the company is committed to the ongoing education of its staff and distributors. By becoming BASIS and FACTS qualified and by joining the Professional Register, staff commit to a Code of Professional Ethics and a programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which requires them to continue their training to keep up-to-date with the latest developments and to enhance and broaden their knowledge and skills. This ensures that turf managers receive the very best advice from ICL’s dedicated turf and amenity team.

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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SISIS success at Colliers Park

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SISIS success at Colliers Park: Two SISIS machines are helping to keep the natural grass pitches clean and healthy at Colliers Park according to Dylan Thompson, grounds maintenance manager.

Colliers Park in Gresford, Wales has recently benefitted from a major renovation following the FAW’s acquisition of the site. It has now transformed into an elite training facility which boasts two full-size training pitches and a synthetic pitch.

SISIS success at Colliers Park

Dylan embarked on his new role in March 2019 and found himself with an arsenal of brand-new turf maintenance equipment at his disposal. The new equipment was based on what the grounds staff use at Dragon Park (the FAW’s other football development centre) and there were two machines which particularly caught Dylan’s eye.

“After using them for the first time I could immediately see why both the SISIS Quadraplay and the SISIS Multitiner were high priority,” said Dylan. “They are both superbly built and can carry out a wide range of tasks.”

As Dylan says, the multi-functional SISIS Quadraplay single pass maintenance system is perfect for busy groundsmen as it incorporates a mounted frame for up to four implements such as grooming rakes, spikers, slitters, rollers and brushes. The implements can be fitted to the mainframe in any order and can be independently adjusted to achieve the desired effect. Compact, robust, versatile and with the ability to carry out up to four operations simultaneously – the Quadraplay makes life a lot easier for many groundsmen as Dylan explains.

“We’ve got the four implements and we mainly use it for brushing and raking. When we are brushing, we will have the slitter down and go as low as we can go just to provide a little aeration – it is great at breaking up the surface algae if we have any. The roller is used to give the pitch a light roll, rather than compacting and is perfect for a nice presentation. With regards to raking we will vary the depth depending on how aggressive we want to be. We’ve done a lot of raking this summer because there was a lot of thinning out required. It has kept the pitch nice and clean so that it is not suffocating.

“I would say that we use the Quadraplay at least once a month – it’s nice and easy to use and changing the depth of the implements is incredibly simple. It is one of those machines which you can get on and complete a number of tasks within a short timeframe.

“Likewise, the Multitiner has 3-point linkage, no hydraulics and there is no messing about – it is quick, simple to set-up and effective.”

For further aeration requirements Dylan relies on the SISIS Multitiner 1.8m – a tractor mounted drum-type aerator. It has three drums with independent rotation and its interchangeable tines with a maximum depth of 100mm ensure excellent turf care when the time comes to aerate.

“The amount we use it all depends on the amount of pitch usage and the weather conditions but we have a general rule of trying to use it on a fortnightly basis,” said Dylan. “On the fibresand pitches we try and keep the structure firm so we will use the Multitiner just to give us a bit of surface aeration.

“Ultimately it keeps the turf healthy and clean and that is exactly what I want.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact SISIS on 01332 824 777 or visit www.sisis.com

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

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