Toro supports Royal Troon at 152nd event
Royal Troon Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland, signed an exclusive partnership deal with Reesink Turfcare and Toro machinery ahead of hosting The Open 2024.
The reason for the deal is that it provided Billy McLachlan, who’s been at the helm of the world-famous golf course for 31 years and Course Manager for four Open tournaments, and his team with a range of world-class equipment, including the latest electric mowers, for the greatest golf championship in the world.
We caught up with Billy ahead of the championship to hear about how he’s been preparing the course for the eyes of the world.
Click below to see our behind the scenes video.
To have that level of precision and control at The Open 2024 was vital for ease of planning and use.
Making Open history with the longest and shortest holes the tournament has seen (the sixth and eighth respectively), it makes sense that Billy continued pushing forwards when it came to the technology taking care of the course too.
Billy, who has been using Toro machinery for years, felt the timing was right to make the commitment with Reesink, especially in the run-up to and over the tournament. Plus, he had his eye on sustainable mowing options. There was a focus on using electric machinery and Billy is extremely impressed with the Toro Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370 ride-on and Greensmaster e1021 pedestrian mowers and their performance on the greens.
Billy McLachlan with the Toro Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370 ride-on mower, which was instrumental in preparing the greens at Royal Troon for The Open 2024.
For electric power to play such a key role in The Open yet again sends a fantastic message. Just like diesel machines, battery operated mowers can also cope with the demands of producing the quality of cut and level of work demanded by a global event.
Alongside the Toro Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370 ride-on and Greensmaster e1021 pedestrian mowers, the club had a core fleet of Toro machines and included new versions of the Toro Reelmaster 3575 and Groundsmaster 4300 mowers for fairways and roughs respectively as well as mid and heavy-duty utility vehicles in the last delivery. There’s also a Toro ProCore 648s on site for post-event recovery work – dealing with a record attendance of 250,000 visitors over the tournament certainly put it to the test.
A bird’s eye view of work underway in preparation for The Open, the handy Toro Workman aiding work.
Billy continues: “Everything about the 2024 event was bigger than it was in 2016. The grandstands, catering facilities, temporary buildings and services, and it’s thanks to the team and their fantastic expertise and experience that saw it all come together. There’s nothing quite like working at an event like The Open – you can feel the atmosphere among the team; they work incredibly hard but there’s excitement behind it.”
Of course, included in the team was Reesink and its technicians providing additional support, as well as bringing additional models of the same machines to cover the additional workload.