Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky is getting ready for the next instalment of the greatest spectacle in golf and is using Jacobsen turf maintenance equipment to prepare for the tournament in September.

Mark Wilson, the club’s Golf Superintendent and his team are busily preparing one of United States‘ most prestigious golf courses ready for the sport’s biggest international stage. Jacobsen, the official equipment supplier to the USPGA, delivered a package of more than 20 new machines to Valhalla at the beginning of the summer to help the recently renovated course get ready for the event. The equipment includes new Eclipse hybrid pedestrian mowers for greens and tees and GreensKing IV riding mowers for use on the fairways.

The new Eclipse hybrid mower, which features electric drive and reel motors with power delivered by either a battery pack or a petrol genset, was developed with input from Jacobsen’s sister company, Ransomes Jacobsen in Ipswich.

As is the case with any major tournament preparation, support and good equipment make all the difference and Valhalla has gotten both from its new partnership with Jacobsen.

“The new equipment is state-of-the-art with a good quality of cut and a great clip, which will definitely help us get ready for September,” he said. “Jacobsen is also supporting us by sending more equipment, mechanics, technicians and their support vehicle right before the tournament. That’s going to be a big help.

“The Ryder Cup is definitely the biggest tournament in golf, I can say that with a lot of confidence as we hosted the PGA Championship here in 2000 and as far as infrastructure, transport and hospitality areas go, this is twice as big,” he said. “We started renovations on spectator and hospitality areas four years ago and really got to work on the course in 2006. Since then, we’ve added four new greens, eight new tees, added several new bunkers, worked on the grass and drainage just about everywhere, took down about 7,000 trees to accommodate more people and basically have made it a much more spectator-friendly golf course.”

For further information please contact:
Peter Driver, PR Officer, Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd
West Road, Ransomes Europark, Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 9TT.
Tel: 01473 276386. Email: peterd@tip.textron.com.

www.ransomesjacobsen.com