Orsett Golf Club in south Essex has joined the ranks of Ventrac owners, with the recent purchase of a 4520 tractor unit and a selection of attachments. The 18-hole heathland course was designed by James Braid and the club, which has over 700 members and a waiting list, recently celebrated its 125 th anniversary.

Perry Lowe is the head greenkeeper and leads a team of seven full-time greenkeeping staff and a dedicated mechanic. He’s been in his current position for almost ten years and previously spent 14 years at Chigwell Golf Club in north east London, initially as deputy course manager and then course manager.

“We’ve got a huge amount of history in the club and there’s a lot of design history as well, which we try to look after,” he said. “We’re not just about revamping everything; we’re trying to keep the history of the club. Trying to keep the Braid look as best we can for modern golf.

“We do a lot of our work in-house so the versatility of the Ventrac is an added bonus. We had a rotary triple mower and it did a great job, but it was coming to the end of its lease. We’d seen and heard a lot about Ventrac in magazines and on social media, so we thought we’d give it a try. A couple of the guys I work with had spoken to people saying how impressive this machine was, so we decided to take a look at it. And the good thing about the Ventrac is, with all the attachments, it becomes an all-year-round machine.

“While the rotary triple we had did a great job, it actually sat in a corner collecting dust during the winter, whereas the Ventrac can go out in all weather; it’s got a wide footprint so it doesn’t make a mess, it doesn’t get stuck. So, you can get all the cutting done without causing any damage. We removed the Contour deck and put on the Trencher attachment and did a huge amount of irrigation, trenching on one of our tees. And it didn’t miss a beat. Absolutely flew through the job and didn’t make any mess at all.

“We’ve also got the Power Rake attachment. We have a lot of shale paths here, which get quite compacted and rutted, but we can go out at this time of year and grade the paths to remove the potholes. We’ll also be using it to prepare another tee we’re renovating. So, instead of being a machine that just sits in a corner, it’s an all-round machine.

“We bought the three attachments in the initial package with the idea that in the future we can add further implements and the one I have in mind is the stump grinder. The attachments we’ve got so far work really well. Once you get used to how to take them off and the little tricks, it’s a ten second job.

“Servicing is easy; it’s a compact unit, so everything is easily accessible. We’ve changed all the filters and things like that a few times, but that’s not a complaint, it’s just part of our maintenance regime. It’s smartly laid out. Everything’s been thought through and ticked off.

“There’s been no issue with it at all. I don’t think it’s missed a beat. The operator loves it. We can’t get him off it. It’s his baby. He looks after it, he maintains it. I think the only thing we’ve had to look at replacing is a bearing on a roller. And that’s probably because we’re so dry and they take a battering.

“There’s nowhere on the course it doesn’t go, in fact, we’re pushing it into a lot more areas than we ever thought because of its wide footprint and four-wheel drive. We’ve got a few greens that are set in little gullies and valleys with quite steep banks. The other machine would get around them at certain times of year, but you’d have big wheelspin marks when trying to get around, so that’s why we’ve got the Ventrac; it just chugged around. It’s an absolutely brilliant piece of kit.”