Birch Grove Open Day
It takes more than a drop of rain to discourage those in our industry from attending an event and the Campey Turf Care Systems Demonstration Days at Birch Grove Estate certainly proved the point!
Amazingly, despite the forecast being dire to say the least it didn’t actually rain at all on the first day and over 80 visitors attended including greenkeepers, groundsmen, machinery dealers and contractors. All expressed their keen interest and showed real enthusiasm for the work and demonstrations taking place. “It has been a very interesting day and well worth coming out for.” said Grant Buckingham of Ernest Doe Ltd.
The visitors were able to walk freely around the course and get the most out of the day. There were a number of procedures taking place around the course; several greens and tees were undergoing intensive renovation with the Koro by Imants 2mtr and 1.5mtr Field Top Makers in action. Although not yet common practice on golf courses, this was an excellent demonstration of how to quickly remove all surface debris and thatch and return the tees and greens back to base soil in order to kick-start the regeneration process.
This was followed by a pass with the Koro by Imants 1.9mtr Recycling Dresser to de-compact the soil and recycle the minerals and nutrients, bringing them back to the surface. A Raycam Sportsfield Harrow was then applied, followed by a further pass with the Raycam Aeroseeder to apply the seed.
Fairways were simultaneously being treated with a combination of Imants Shockwaves 2.2m and 2.1m to improve aeration and re-seeded with a 1.2mtr Vredo Super Compact overseeder.
In addition to the renovation work using equipment purchased by Birch Grove Estate and overseen by Course Manager Peter Smith, Campey turf Care Systems demonstrated the operation and benefits of a number of machines including the Imants Rotoknife, Imants Greenwave, Dakota Spreaders, and the Omarv Mower/Collector.
Phil Turner Area Sales Manager of Lister Wilder commented “I would like to thank all the customers that came along from our area. It was a very interesting day with a good variety of implements working on this private golf course. I would also like to thank Peter Smith and Richard Campey and his team for putting on a very good exhibition of how the machines work and illustrating the benefits to the areas which have been worked by the Campey machines.”
Donald Steel the original course Architect was accompanied by Peter Meanley, Past Chairman of West Sussex Golf Club who expressed his surprise and admiration for the work undertaken “I was privileged to visit Birch Grove Estate and view the renovation of the golf course with Donald Steel. I was greatly impressed both with the layout of the course and the renovation work in progress. I was impressed with the variety of equipment and the scale of operation. Course construction and management seems to be ever growing in sophistication and scale.”
In the end the elements took charge and Wednesday’s demonstrations had to be cancelled. The constant downpour made it no longer viable to take equipment onto the golf course.
Kevin Wisset-Warner, Estate Manager at Birch Grove expressed his thanks to the team for their valiant efforts in the face of adversity “Please pass my thanks on for all Campey’s efforts over the last week. Despite the terrible conditions it was amazing to see the teams smiling faces every time I popped down to see them.”
After seeing what can be achieved with modern turf renovation equipment, the management at Birch Grove Estate were so impressed that they have already offered to open the course to Campey Turf Care Systems again next year. They believe that it is important that everyone should have the opportunity to see these machines working in actual conditions on such a superb and unique golf course.