3-in-1: Needle tine - Pitchcare

Achieving a championship
course - all year round
THE prime objective of every golf course
is to keep the greens in top condition.
Huge investment is made in a vast array
of course maintenance equipment, of
which, grass-cutting machinery probably
accounts for the largest proportion of
spend. The recent successful Open
Championship at St. Andrews Old
Course, is a testament to the dedication
of the greens staff, and is reflection of
how an efficient, coordinated year round
maintenance programme, ensures a
perfect course of International standards.
Euan Grant, Old Course Head
Greenkeeper, explains how the pretournament
preparation is an extension
of their regular maintenance activity. “If
you have bad maintenance strategies
throughout the year, you won’t be able to
correct this to stage a large event. We
operate good practice all year round,
then strengthen it leading up to the
Championship.”
Three weeks before the Open, the
course is closed and the maintenance
programme is intensified to achieve the
levels of play required for the Open. This
increase is partially achieved by
seconding staff and machinery from the
other St Andrews Links Trust courses
which run adjacent to the Old course.
Amongst the staff there is a huge amount
of experience in tournament preparation
to draw on as well as the resources.
“Our six workshop technicians are on
call 21 hours a day during the Open
week, responsible for 13 ride-on mowers
with 3 units each, 16 pedestrian mowers
and a sidewinder.” said Euan “The grass
is cut every morning, with all the
machines brought in for checking at the
end of each day. Fortunately, we are
better organised and more efficient that
we have ever been and always have spare
units to fall back on if there is a
Sleeping GIANTS waking up?
YOU could be forgiven for thinking that
New Holland were, at best, sleeping giants
or, at worst, not serious about the
groundscare market. Sure, they could be
found exhibiting at Saltex, BTME and
regional shows but aren’t they really
agricultural manufacturers just dipping a
toe in the turfcare water?
Whilst competitors such as John Deere
and, to a lesser extent, Massey Ferguson,
have successfully made the crossover
from Ag and raised their profile in the
industry, New Holland appeared simply to
‘plod on’.
But this view is, perhaps, rather unfair.
Quietly and confidently the New Holland
team at Basildon, along with their network
of dealers, have secured major contracts
with some of the top sporting venues in
the UK. Many local authorities use the blue
problem.” Euan continues “The grass has
to be healthy all year round and this can
only be achieved by a sensible approach
to our use of water,
fertiliser and equipment.
We cut the grass fairly
high at 5mm and to
maintain its health we
have to have a quality
cut. We are fortunate to
have our own grinder in
the workshop and
operate a system
whereby we check the
mowers every week for
any damage that may
have been caused by obstacles on the
course or the effects of our substantial
top dressing programme.”
The central workshop servicing the
five and a half courses at St Andrews
Links is located near the Old Course and
houses a Jupiter 2000 relief and spin
grinder and an Amazon Bottom Blade
Grinder, both supplied by Hunter
Grinders Ltd. Hunters advocate relief
grinding as the primary method of
achieving an accurate cut and all its
grinders are designed to return cylinders
and/or bottom blades back to original
manufacturers specification. The use of
coolant, unique to Hunter machines,
minimises air born dust and heat buildup.
“We believe that relief grinding gives a
superior, longer lasting cut” said Euan.
“This is very important because, by relief
grinding the units, the accuracy of the
cut lasts for the whole season. We will
occasionally give a cylinder a couple of
passes to get it back on cut if it has
suffered damage on the course, but
nothing more substantial is usually
required. Accuracy of cut is essential for
healthy grass and as a consequence we
beasts in preference to green or red and,
contractors can be seen using New
Holland models up and down the country.
So why the perceived low profile?
To outline the company’s ongoing
strategy, members of the press were
invited to visit the manufacturing facilty at
Basildon to see at first hand what NH are
all about.
Seen one factory - seen ’em all! Modern,
robotic, health and safety, on-time
production blah-de-blah-de-blah!. It goes
without saying that Basildon is all that and
more. So let’s skip the factory.
New Holland ARE sleeping giants. Even
their dealers will tell you this. One told me
“the products are great, probably the best
on the market, but without promotional
back-up it’s very hard to compete against
the green tide.”
have very little disease
here. Another benefit of
this degree of accuracy is
that the units are very
easy to set-up for noncontact
mowing. We have
used non-contact mowing for a very long
time. Low levels of nutrition and water
usage promote very little growth and
therefore the potential cooling effect of
the plant through the cylinder is
minimal. Non-contact mowing avoids the
effects of overheating and has been
proven to prolong the life of the
cylinder.”
Gordon Moir, Links Superintendent
acknowledged that it had been extremely
hard work for everyone involved, but the
R & A had appeared relaxed and very
satisfied with the course. “Although the
weeks leading up to the Tournament had
been very wet and the courses slow, we
managed to get the speed of the greens
up to 10.2 and 10.3 for the first couple
of days and 10.5 by the Sunday. The
rough was also achieved where required.
The weather, particularly the wind plays
a significant role in this area and can
carry the ball too far. All these factors
have to be considered, but the fairways
were hard and fast by Sunday and a lot
of the bunkers came into play, all in all
making a very exciting and interesting
Open.”
So New Holland aim to change this.
Product awareness is to become the main
priority. There’s new styling on all models,
new badging and a desire to ‘mix-it’ with
their competitors. Only time will tell but
everything appears to be in place to turn
the green tide to blue!