Summer 2024

Toro GeoLink is a guidance and sprayer boom control system and management package rolled into one. Here James de Havilland, independent machinery tester, finds out how this technology will vastly improve sprayer application accuracy.

Fife-based Scotscraig Golf Club, the 13th oldest in the world, has recently invested in the Toro ProCore 648s aerator to improve the overall quality of its surface and the playability of the course. The result is a much faster and easier aeration process. 

Led by course manager Darren Mckenna, the team at Scotscraig is always looking for new ways to optimise its golf course, which is surrounded by history and has welcomed some of the sport’s greatest names.

By taking on the distribution of Perrot sprinklers in the UK, Reesink Hydro-Scapes is expanding its offering of professional irrigation solutions for sports customers. 

Perrot is known for being able to provide the right irrigation solution to suit any size and meet any requirements, whether for natural, synthetic or hybrid turf. The various combinations of sprinklers available mean that an extremely wide range of different needs can be easily met. 

Reesink is bringing to the UK three types of sprinkler technology in six powerful Perrot sprinklers to suit all sorts of sports surfaces – football, golf, hockey, tennis, even horse racetracks. Regardless of which sprinklers are chosen, Perrot systems can reach every inch, in every tight corner, ensuring maximum turf health with minimum water consumption, says the manufacturer.

As Highwoods Golf Club celebrates its centenary year with a week’s worth of celebrations, the East Sussex club reveals how Toro’s complete turfcare offering has been central to its ongoing success.

“We’re a Toro club through and through,” says Jamie Melham, course manager at Highwoods. “Alongside our new fleet of turfcare machinery, we’re also using Toro’s Lynx irrigation system, which, together, ensures all the greens, tees, approaches, and fairways are maintained to the highest standard.

“A strategic plan has been put in place to take the course to the next level and continue to push, year-on-year,” he adds. “With all eyes on us for our centenary, that’s never been more important.”

The idea behind the R&A’s Golf It! initiative was to create a space that introduces people to and promotes the game of golf while proactively giving back to the local community through an apprenticeship programme sponsored by The Toro Foundation.

“The R&A’s original idea was to provide a facility where people in inner city Glasgow could play golf,” says Andy Brown, senior manager of global business development and relationships at The Toro Company. “But we realised there was also the opportunity to introduce the concept of greenkeeping as a possible career choice via an apprenticeship scheme, too.”

Developed by the R&A in 2020 to make golf as welcoming and affordable as possible, the facility has grown into a multi-layered experience for all the family – with pitch and putt, adventure golf, putting greens and a driving range. As it grew, a greenkeeping team was needed to upkeep the venue to the highest of standards.

In a theme of fives, Calcot Park Golf Club has received five new Toro machines on a five-year lease. Headlining the fleet is the Reelmaster 5410 with five cutting units for tackling the challenging terrain of the course with unrelenting ease for years.

The club, situated on the Berkshire border, is no stranger to Toro. In fact, according to Course Manager Tom Jennings, 100 percent of its machinery fleet is red – and that’s as much for its longevity as it is its performance.

Longevity has been key to Toro’s irrigation strategy since its early development and it’s certainly something Reesink Hydro-Scapes can attest to seeing ‘on the ground’ in the UK. 

As the sole Toro distributor in the UK for golf and sports fields irrigation products, Robert Jackson, Division Manager of Reesink Hydro-Scapes, the distributor’s water division, is only now, after 30 years working in the business, needing to help the clubs he worked with in the early days of his career to update their Toro systems.

Having seen improved productivity from all-day course maintenance from using Toro electric machinery, Hillside Golf Club in Southport has subsequently invested in three more Toro all-electric eTriFlex 3370 greensmowers and two Toro Workman GTX-Lithium utility vehicles through Reesink Turfcare and dealer Cheshire Turf Machinery.

When the club invested in its first eTriFlex three years ago, the aim was environmental and to eliminate the risk of hydraulic leaks on the greens. Having used the machine for three years now there’s an additional benefit: it’s favoured just as much for the lack of operational noise, which has enabled greens staff to mow throughout the day.