Royal Worlington and Newmarket Golf Club in Suffolk is the latest club, and first club in East Anglia, to invest in the most advanced spraying system on the market – Toro’s Multi Pro 5800 with GeoLink Spray technology.

Course Manager Martin Turna was looking for a spraying solution that would allow him and his team to apply the correct nutrients in the correct locations to improve turf health, benefit the environment and make savings.

Using GeoLink technology for its mapping capabilities, the Multi Pro 5800 from Reesink Turfcare will give Royal Worlington and Newmarket Golf Club better control and accuracy in its spraying technique and reduce the amount of product it uses. 

GeoLink will take care of accuracy, shutting off individual nozzles to prevent over spraying, essentially eliminating the risk of misalignment issues with conventional sprayers. Going forward the club will be able to track the amount and areas of product coverage, volume, pressures, speed of sprayer during and after the application.

At this nine-hole inland links course, the grass is fine fescue and the soil is free draining and sandy. We apply a monthly wetting agent to all playing surfaces to manage soil moisture and occasionally spray selective herbicides to control the weeds to produce the great turf on which to play.

Martin says: “We don’t use many chemicals, but we need wetting agents to maintain the moisture as it’s an extremely dry course. Now, there will be no over-spraying or overlap and as we will only be spraying the areas that need it, not wasting chemicals on non-targeted areas.”

Derek Kuziw, whose role on the Green Committee is to liaise with Martin and help assess the equipment needs of the club and channel the budget into the appropriate areas, says they had recognised there was a way for technology to improve the club’s spraying processes. 

“We were using a tractor-mounted sprayer which didn’t give accurate control of application. The individual nozzle control of the Multi Pro means there’s less spray outside of the defined areas and the operator is no longer forced to turn on and off boom sections when spraying. The sprayer, or should I say, the technology takes over.”

The sprayer arrives in the middle of the club’s five-year development programme to turn the fairways into fast running golf. Working with The R&A, the improved spraying techniques, along with using lightweight Toro fairway mowers to help with compaction, will help improve the overall condition of the turf.

Martin says: “Over or under spraying is not good for turf health. More precise application is going to reduce the stress on the turf and improve its quality. We looked at lots of options, but Toro was technically the best answer and met our requirements exactly. Lee Rowbotham from Reesink came with his team to provide training and show us the full capabilities of the sprayer and the technology. We didn’t look anywhere else from there.

“This purchase is an investment. We’ll be spraying across the course from the greens, fairways, approaches, and from now on we will only mix up the exact amount of product we need for those areas. There will be no educated guesswork since we will know the exact areas to spray, so the savings could potentially be significant. We’ll even know how much is needed for the last partial tank to finish up.”

Find out how choosing Toro technology could benefit your course by calling UK distributor Reesink Turfcare on 01480 226800, emailing info@reesinkturfcare.co.uk or visiting reesinkturfcare.co.uk.