Tag Archive for: Up

Toro up for the job at Upminster

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Toro up for the job at Upminster: It was word of mouth and recommendations from nearby customers that saw Upminster Golf Club opt for Toro irrigation.

When Andy Cracknell assumed his new post as course manager at Upminster Golf Club two years ago, one of his first projects was overseeing the installation of a new irrigation system, all he had to do was choose who to go with.

Toro up for the job at Upminster

“By the time I came on board the decision had been made that the system needed to be replaced but it had not yet been decided who would be best to deliver on our objectives, which included a high degree of control to advance the turf quality on the fairways and approaches in particular.”

And it was fellow golf clubs in the vicinity of the club in Essex that made a potentially difficult decision straightforward, says Andy: “Some neighbouring clubs in the M25 area were using Toro irrigation and getting great results. The ground here is London clay and can be particularly difficult to work with, which meant I paid close attention to their experience using Toro irrigation, mainly the Lynx central control system. Everyone was raving about how effective it was.”

This is thanks to the level of control the Lynx system offers, as well as the option to choose sprinklers such as Infinity that can be accessed from the top down to prevent the messy, difficult and time-consuming process of digging up the sprinkler body for maintenance and servicing.

Clay soil needs to maintain a steady moisture level – if it gets overly wet or dry it’s easily damaged when dug up or walked on – hence the reason why Infinity sprinklers appealed so much to Andy.

“It was so important to have a system that offered us the ability to irrigate specifically to our soil’s unique needs,” he says. “We had moved past the point where it was okay to be irrigating in units of minutes, we needed to get down to the millimetre. When treated in the right way clay-based soil has the potential to be really fertile and we’re starting to see the positive difference this level of control is bringing to the quality of the soil.

“We have 150 Infinity sprinklers on the greens, surrounds, approaches and three of the fairways and there’s just no comparison when it comes to adjusting in the field, they’re so easy to use.”

The club also has T5 and T7 sprinklers fitted to specification on the tees and because says Andy “he wanted to keep everything all Toro”.

Apart from ease of use and better-quality turf, Andy says the benefits for going with Toro don’t stop there: “We’ve been using the system for seven months now and we’re definitely making a saving on the amount of water we’re using. We used to use about 70 cube of water a night on the greens but we’re using around 30 now. When you’re irrigating off the mains that’s significant.”

Hopefully though it won’t be long until Upminster has a degree of self-sufficiency to its irrigation, as Andy explains: “We have a river we can do more with. It can certainly be turned into a feature as an aesthetic benefit to the course, but more importantly we can irrigate from it too. That’s one of our next projects.”

Upminster Golf Club’s irrigation system was installed by Full Circle Irrigation and organised by Reesink Turfcare, the sole Toro distributor in the UK for golf and sports fields equipment and irrigation products, and Andy says “it’s been an excellent experience. We’ve had four or five site visits from Cevan Edwards from Reesink and everything has been very smooth.”

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400 Up For Mant Family

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400 Up For Mant Family: A son who followed in the footsteps of his dad by becoming head groundsman at Fontwell Park Racecourse is celebrating his 400th race meeting at the racecourse this weekend.

Paul Mant, who took over the role from dad Roger 16 years ago after learning the ropes and working alongside him for more than 20 years, has earned plaudits from leading jockeys including Richard Johnson for his work in making Fontwell one of the country’s most popular courses among jump jockeys.

400 Up For Mant Family

Paul, 54, first started working with his dad on the course as a schoolboy during the summer holidays – he even learned to drive a tractor at the age of 11 – and then as his assistant after leaving school in 1981.

However, it wasn’t until 2003 that he took over the reins from his dad, now 81, who retired after 44 years in the job. Between them they have now clocked up 60 years in charge of the famous figure-of-eight course.

Paul was born in one of only two houses built on the racecourse in 1959 where he still lives with son Aiden. He said: “I’ve been lucky enough to have been part of Fontwell Park all of my life and fortunate to have learned the ropes from my dad.

“I guess I picked up lots of tips and hints on how to do things over the years from just following him around but I’ve developed my own way of doing it. I worked with him for over 22 years so I picked up quite a bit in that time.”

“I’ve only ever missed two race meetings since I became head groundsman. The first was when I was sent on a groundsman’s course and the second one was when Fontwell was given an extra race day during the season and I had already booked a holiday to Spain. I managed to find a bar that was showing it on the TV though!”

His preparations for this Friday and Saturday’s Oktoberfest meeting, one of the highlights of the racing calendar at Fontwell, include mowing the course every two days, which takes him up to four hours, and making sure all of the fences across course are in the best possible condition for jockeys, who he has developed friendships with over the years.

He added: “I always go into the weighing room after every race to and chat to the jockeys and I’ll be doing it this weekend. They will tell me if anything is wrong and what could be improved. They are the ones who put their bodies on the line so it’s important part of my job.”

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AMS Gear Up For SALTEX

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AMS Gear Up For SALTEX: Visitors to this year’s SALTEX exhibition will have a unique opportunity to get to see Belrobotics automated mowers and ball collector, along with the AMS ball wash and transportation system.

AMS Robotics, the UK’s official distributors for Belrobotics robots, is excited to bring the innovative robotic mowers and ball picker to the exhibition, with a stand featuring the robot technology in action.

AMS Gear Up For SALTEX

With 55+ locations across the UK, the automated turf maintenance company, currently provides golf driving ranges an all in one service solution that automates outfield mowing along with ball collection, washing and transportation. They also offer a robotic mowing service for large green space areas such as sports pitches, golf par 3 courses, public spaces or private estates.

Philip Sear, Managing Director of AMS Robotics had this to say:

“We’re delighted to be bringing the Belrobotic robot technology and our ball wash and transportation system to SALTEX 2019.  The show offers an unmissable opportunity for turf care professionals to come and see for themselves how the automated technology works and the benefits it provides.”

Visitors to Saltex 2019 at NEC Birmingham, October 30th – 31st, can see the robot technology in action at Stand A040 or alternatively visit www.amsrobotics.co.uk or call 01462 676 222 for more information.

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Up For The Cup At Gleneagles

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Up For The Cup At Gleneagles: Gleneagles will hold a unique position in golfing history when the biggest event in women’s golf concludes this weekend, by becoming the first venue in Europe to have hosted both The Solheim Cup and The Ryder Cup (in 2014).

As the Gleneagles and volunteer greenkeeping teams led by golf courses manager Craig Haldane, together with director of agronomy and estates Scott Fenwick, put the finishing touches to the Jack Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary Course, John Deere and local dealer Double A are equally busy behind the scenes.

Up for The Cup at Gleneagles

The greenkeeping team at Gleneagles has risen to 100 people, with tournament standard conditioning also extending to The King’s Course, which is hosting The Junior Solheim Cup, and The Queen’s Course, which remains open for member and VIP visitor play during the week.

John Deere is the official golf course and turf maintenance machinery event partner to Gleneagles for this 16th biennial edition of The Solheim Cup. The company has a long association with professional golf, having been a title sponsor on the PGA Tour, official supplier to the PGA Tour for over 25 years, official supplier to the Ladies European Tour and a partner at numerous Solheim Cup events.

In addition, John Deere is partnering Gleneagles by exclusively providing golf course maintenance machinery and ancillary equipment for use across all three championship golf courses.

“We are very grateful for the support from our local dealer Double A as we’ve been gearing up the John Deere fleet ahead of the tournament,” says Craig Haldane. “Typically we aim to maintain all three courses at a very high level all year round, but we’ve upped the ante for The Solheim Cup.

“Closing the course three weeks prior to the event has allowed it to recover from any stress and provided additional time to prepare and introduce a higher frequency of cut. By fine tuning our existing practices we’ve been able go up another level in terms of a quality cut and finish for the tournament.

“We’re also very fortunate to benefit from the extra resources and experience provided by the volunteer greenkeepers supporting our team this week. Eight of the 52 volunteers are women, who have joined our own Laura Campbell and BIGGA’s head of membership services Tracey Maddison to help with the course preparations, so it’s fitting that we can showcase the equal role women play in our industry, especially during The Solheim Cup.”

Up for The Cup at Gleneagles

Carlos Aragones, John Deere European turf sales & marketing manager, adds: “The Solheim Cup is one of the biggest events on the 2019 sporting calendar and we are delighted to be a part of it. We are also proud of our collaboration with Gleneagles in helping to prepare the course for such a prestigious tournament.”

In 2019 John Deere and its dealers are supporting more than 10 major tournaments in the UK and Ireland, every month from the Betfred British Masters at Hillside Golf Club in May to The Solheim Cup at Gleneagles and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September. This involves providing specialist support staff and more than 150 machines including walk-behind and ride-on greens mowers, tees & surrounds, fairway and rough mowers, compact tractors and Gator utility vehicles.

“Traditionally we work closely with the individual club’s course managers and greenkeeping teams to help keep all the machines in the fleet serviced and ready for work each day, and ensure all cutting units can achieve the highest possible quality of cut,” says John Deere Limited turf division manager Chris Meacock. “This partnership approach helps everyone to achieve the best possible results where they matter, out on the course, and keep things running as smoothly as possible throughout the event.”

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Vandals Rip Up Furness GC

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Vandals Rip Up Furness GC: Golfers have called on the community to ‘grass up’ the mindless vandals who caused a ‘hole’ lot of damage on their course.

Over the last two decades officials at Furness Golf Club on Walney have had to contend with regular incidents of criminal damage on the greens.

Vandals Rip Up Furness GC

These have ranged from someone using a pitchfork to leave a trail of holes across the course to fires being started in the gorse.

As a result the club has had to fork out thousands of pounds on repairs with the greenkeeper’s time spent painstakingly fixing the divots.

Greens chairman Jon Clarke said the club hopes the community will keep a close eye out for any culprits after the latest incident this week where wedges of turf had been pulled from the green.

“I can’t see what anyone would get out of it; it’s completely mindless and senseless,” he said.

“It’s been going on for the last 15 or 20 years; every year there’s been at least 10 examples of vandalism.

“We had one where it looked like somebody had gone across the green and used a pitchfork to put holes all over the place.

“Just four weeks ago the gorse was set on fire and it took 48 hours to put out. That’s not just a drain on our resources but also for the police and fire.”

Club members have spent hundreds of hours repairing the damage which also impacts on them indirectly through increased membership fees.

“It’s incredibly frustrating because all golf courses now are struggling to keep going and it is our members who end up having to pay for the repairs because we need to recoup the costs somehow,” Mr Clarke added.

Over the years club officials estimate they have spent half a million pounds repairing damage caused by vandals.

Every year maintenance of the course costs around £250,000.

Barrow Police have confirmed they are investigating reports of vandalism to the golf course.

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Stock Up On Toro’s Titan Tines

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Stock Up On Toro’s Titan Tines: Thanks to Reesink Turfcare’s 24-hour delivery service customers can have their stock of Toro Titan Tines replenished and their machines back up and running as quickly as possible.

The titans of the tines industry and known as the turf professional’s secret weapon when it comes to achieving precise, concise holes for faster recovery and a smoother finish, Toro’s Titan Tines genuinely offer customers more, just like their UK distributor Reesink. And when it comes to delivery, its guaranteed to be the fastest delivery time possible.

Stock Up On Toro's Titan Tines

But not just that, when you choose Toro’s Titan Tines, you can also be guaranteed of more choice, more longevity, more productivity, more strength, more play and more reliability too.

More choice

There are over 150 Toro Titan Tines available covering all possible aeration applications. Whether you’ll be coring, slicing or spiking, hollow, solid or deep tining, or using water injection cultivation or ‘linear’ aeration, there’s a Titan Tine for every need.

Plus, all Titan Tines fit current and late model Toro aerators and the standard mount size fits lots of other manufacturer aerators, too.

More longevity, more productivity

Toro’s Titan Tines are the longest-lasting on the market, thanks to their robust tungsten-carbide-blend tip, which lasts up to four times longer than standard tines. And because they last longer, it means fewer replacements and less change-outs are needed leading to greater productivity.

More strength

Toro’s Titan Tines are made by combining a strong alloy with a unique heat treatment process resulting in a finished product that provides maximum strength and resistance to wear.

More play

Toro’s ultra-durable Titan Tines are the turf professional’s secret weapon when it comes to achieving precise, concise holes for faster recovery and a smoother finish. Clean-cut holes are important for a speedy recovery and the best way to ensure the speediest of recoveries is with tines that boast sharp edges and smooth sides.

Michael Hampton, turfcare parts manager at Reesink, says: “Toro’s Titan Tines are designed to produce precise consistent holes for fast turf recovery, a smooth finish and quick return to play.”

More reliable

Timing is vital when it comes to aeration – you’ll likely know when that is for your surfaces – and it is important not to be let down in the middle of the aeration programme. The tough design of Toro’s Titan Tines, including durable brazed tip joints that ensure a strong bond with in-built resistance to separation and breakage, importantly help maintain consistent aeration depths and reduces costly change-out and associated downtime.

When you need new tines, you get second-to-none parts back up with Reesink to ensure downtime is kept to a minimum. To stock up on Titan Tines or for more aeration advice, customers can get in touch with their local genuine Toro parts dealer or service centre.

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Vandals Tear Up Golf Green

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Vandals Tear Up Golf Green: A group of “mindless” joy riders ripped up a north-east golf course at the weekend, leaving one green badly damaged.

Grounds staff at Oldmeldrum Golf Club arrived on Sunday morning to prepare for the day’s action only to discover tyre marks across the 17th green.

Vandals Tear Up Golf Green

Sections of turf had been ripped out by the perpetrators who caused significant damage that may take some time to repair.

It is the second time a car has been driven onto the course, which can be accessed from an adjacent road, but the first time someone has taken it onto the greens.

Now the club officials have to assess whether they can replace the turf, or whether they have to leave it to grow out.

Hamish Dingwall, club coordinator, said: “It obviously has had an impact in the short-term because we have had to re-position the hole.

“But it’s more the long-term effect it’s going to have on the surface because of the damage to the turf.

“We will have to assess what we do in the long-term. It may be that we have to just leave it to re-grow.

“There’s been a very good response on social media since we posted about the incident.

“It is very frustrating for us and not something anyone wants to see at their club. It’s just mindless vandalism.”

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Miles Hire Fuel Up With MHM

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Miles Hire Fuel Up With MHM: Miles Hire Limited the Welsh hirer of plant, tools and access equipment have taken delivery of a fleet of fuel storage and distribution products, supplied by MHM Plant Limited.

Entitled the ‘MHM Fuel Caddi’, Miles Hire has purchased an initial five units for distribution to their Swansea, Cardiff and Bridgend depots. The Fuel Caddis will be made available for hire and for the safe delivery of fuel by the Miles Hire maintenance teams.

Miles Hire Fuel Up With MHM

The MHM Fuel Caddi is an intermediate bulk container (IBC) with a 105 litre capacity. It is fully transportable and delivers fuel via a hand pump, hose and nozzle. The Fuel Caddi’s fully bunded base guards against ground contamination and it is easily transported via its handy fork lift pockets and lifting eyes. The Fuel Caddi can be delivered, full of fuel, without the need for a driver to have ADR training. It is ideally suited to refuel generators, heaters and other similar items of plant.

Commenting on this purchase, Ryan Miles, Director, Miles Hire Limited said, “We first spotted the Fuel Caddi at the Executive Hire Show back in February. We were immediately impressed with the Fuel Caddi’s easy manoeuvrability and safe storage of fuel. We initially purchased them for our own use, but we can see potential opportunities to hire these out.”

“We appreciate good service and MHM’s assistance is always spot on. Mat and his team are always willing to help, we highly recommend MHM and never look elsewhere for their products”, added Miles.

Darren Williams, MHM sales manager added, “We believe that the Fuel Caddi will soon become an essential item for hire firms supplying diesel powered machinery. Ryan and his team immediately spotted the features and benefits of the Fuel Caddi and we were delighted to have supplied them with this new product.”

Miles Hire is an independent Welsh business that has been a family concern for two generations. The company is managed by directors and brothers, Ryan and Darren Miles. They provide a wide range of equipment to both trade and DIY customers. Miles Hire has depots in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Miskin.

MHM Plant’s head office is based in Port Talbot, South Wales. The company supplies power generation, solar-hybrid-generators, fuel storage, lighting towers, engine drive welders and product related accessories to the UK and Irish rental markets, for both hire and purchase.

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Century Up At Gleneagles

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Century Up At Gleneagles: Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland has recently celebrated the 100th birthday of its iconic King’s and Queen’s Courses, with a little help from local John Deere dealer Sandy Armit of Double A.

Designed by James Braid and created using nothing more than manual labour and horse and cart, both courses were officially opened on 1 May 1919 and have an illustrious history.

Century Up At Gleneagles

The King’s Course hosted a famous match between the ‘Big Three’ of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player in 1966, as well as the popular Bell’s Scottish Open on the European Tour from 1987 to 1994, the largest spectator event after The Open at the time. The Queen’s Course has also hosted great names from entertainment and sport, including Sean Connery and Alan Shepard, the only man to hit a golf shot on the moon!

In more recent times, and under Gleneagles’ new ownership by Ennismore, both courses have benefited from extensive renovation projects. These have seen them realigned to Braid’s original design vision with wider fairways, bringing strategically placed bunkers back in play, and the reintroduction of Scottish heather in key areas.

As part of the special centenary celebrations, Gleneagles staff recreated several historic archive photographs from the 1920s, including an image of a tractor pulling a set of gang mowers on a fairway. This was replicated with a 1941 John Deere Model B tractor, equipped with a set of trailed cylinder gang mowers. The tractor is owned by Sandy Armit and is usually on display at the dealership’s headquarters in Cupar, Fife.

Gleneagles signed an exclusive contract with John Deere in 2017 for the supply of golf course maintenance equipment and related technology to the three championship golf courses at the award winning hotel and golf resort.

Century Up At Gleneagles

John Deere also celebrated its own centenary last year, as March 14, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the day Deere & Company bought the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company of Waterloo in Iowa and officially entered the tractor business for which it would become famous worldwide; tractors are still made at Waterloo to this day. The Model B tractor that was loaned to Gleneagles is still John Deere’s all-time bestselling model, with 300,000 sold from 1935 to 1953.

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

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Eliet Speeds Up Scarifying

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Eliet Speeds Up Scarifying:Leading Belgian manufacturer Eliet have launched an innovative new machine, set to dramatically reduce the time landscapers and groundsmen spend undertaking scarifying operations and disposing of thatch and moss.

The NEW C550ZR Collector brings a new standard in turf maintenance, collecting moss and thatch into narrow rows for easier disposal, resulting in huge time savings for the operator by reducing the cleaning time by up to 50%.

Eliet Speeds Up Scarifying

As every landscaper and gardener knows, mowing the grass is only one small step in maintaining healthy turf. Dehatching is also a key element of lawn care and with the increased use of mulching and robotic mowers, the requirement is now greater than ever. The constant deposit of hard-to-break-down organic material can result in a layer of thatch accumulating within the turf structure. If left undealt with, this will seriously inhibit lawn development and can encourage both invasive species and diseases to develop. Dethatching removes this layer of material and moss from the turf, providing the space for the grass plants to grow and your lawn to flurish.

Eliet have now introduced an effective solution to this issue with the C55OZR Collector, which provides efficient scarification, moss and thatch removal with improved collection. As material is removed from the turf, it is deposited into a discharge channel with an Archimedean screw that carries it to the side of the machine. It is deposited into a narrow row, which on the next pass of the operation can be re-collected by the machine and integrated into a new row, along with the raked-up material from the second strip of turf. In this way the C550ZR can collect the moss and thatch of a 1m working width into one row, which is hugely time saving.

This new machine is self-propelled and features an above-average 55cm working width which limits the number of rows to collect, and opreates at 2.5km/hr. The scarifying blades are spaced every 15mm to provide an intensive treatment to the turf and are designed to rotate forwards; thus maximising dethatching performance. This contra-rotation results in improved removal and collection of material which is pulled out and thrown vertically onto the collecting auger, increasing the efficency of dethatching by up to 30%. In addition, the extremely fine blades have Permanently Sharp BladesTM technology to ensure minimum turf damage and extended blade life. The machine also features controls with an anti vibration damper for improved operator comfort and safety and runs on a rubber-coated roller that ensures an aesthetically pleasing striped pattern on the lawn.

Gracienne Geenens, Sales Director at Eliet says:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be bringing the C550ZR Collector to the UK market. It’s a fantastic, innovative piece of equipment which will save landscapers both time and money.”

The C550ZR will be available for demonstration during April through UK distributor PSD Groundscare. For more information please contact:

Tel: 01282 856819 or email sales@psdgroundscare.com

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