RUDDING PARK PREPARE FOR WINTER

Head greenkeeper at Harrogate’s Rudding Park Golf Course, Richard Hollingworth, has said that the recent delivery of a Verti-Drain 7416 from Redexim is proving key in their pre-winter preparations.

Richard says there has barely been a day since the machine arrived in August that it hasn’t been out, working on all areas of the course including greens, fairways and surrounds. 

As a corporate golf course and part of the Rudding Park resort, not only does the club have an active membership, the surfaces have to be fit to sustain play 364 days of the year - which equates to somewhere in the region of 40,000 rounds annually.

“Because of the volume of rounds, when it comes to aeration it is critical that we’ve got equipment that is not just fit-for-purpose on the greens. We need to be getting some holes into the clay-based fairways to deliver the perfect course on any given day,” explains Richard, who heads-up a maintenance team of nine. 

“We had the 7416 on demo last year from our local dealer F. G. Adamson & Son and used it on all 18 greens, and throughout that extensive trial period we could tell it was going to suit us and the various requirements of our course. It was light enough to aerate the greens with minimal surface disruption, yet strong enough to be effective on fairways and surrounds."

Richard added, “To date, we’ve aerated all of the greens surrounds and multiple weak fairways with ¾” tines, as we tackle compaction and dry patches ahead of the arrival of winter. We’ve also purchased ½” tines for the deep, pre-winter work on the greens and needle tines for the summer.”