Harrogate Golf Club’s head greenkeeper, Tony Baxby, says he’s been slowly but surely switching the North Yorkshire club’s fleet to Toro over the last 30 years and, as a result, now counts around 15 Toro machines among his kit, including two old Toro aerators.

So it was no surprise that, when one of the aerators reached the end of its useful life, Tony chose to replace it with another Toro. “We went with Toro again because the gear is very good and we never have any trouble with it,” he says.

The club’s new ProCore 648 has certainly proved true to form. “It’s a real improvement on the old models,” Tony continues. “It’s quicker and covers a wider area, plus we’re not running over the cores with the wheels. I’m a very happy Toro user.”

Able to core faster than anything else in its class, Toro’s ProCore 648 pedestrian aerator is a,self-powered, vertical corer with a large 48in/122cm working width that is half as twice as wide as competitors.

As Tony has discovered, this means that 18 greens can be aerated in just over seven hours, enabling greenkeepers to get their greens back in play faster than ever before. What’s more, unlike many other aerators on the market, its wheels are located in front of the tines so that the machine never runs over the cores.

However, Tony believes the backup he receives from his dealer, County Mowers, has always been the clincher in his decision to buy Toro. “Who’s providing the backup is crucial to us and County Mowers gives us a very good service. After all, a good machine with bad backup is a bad machine and an average machine with good backup is just an average machine – but a good machine with good backup is an excellent machine.”

For further details of Toro’s Procore 648 aerator, contact your local Toro dealer or call Lely UK on 01480 226800 or email toro.info.uk@lely.com.