It has been announced that John Deere, Rain Bird and Carnoustie Golf Links have joined forces in a major strategic partnership for the golf industry.

Carnoustie Golf Links, John Deere, dealer Double A and Rain Bird staff with some of the new machinery fleet on the 14th fairway of The Championship Course

The three organisations say they all share long histories built on innovation and are combining their strengths in this landmark partnership which will see a major investment in irrigation, greenkeeping and development of the game of golf at Carnoustie.

As part of the new golf course maintenance fleet supplied as part of the arrangement, local dealer Double A will be supplying 12 of the new John Deere 2750E ride-on triplex hybrid greens and fairway mowers.

In addition, A Series mowers are included that feature the password-protected TechControl system, which allows the course manager to set equipment up to achieve the desired course finish regardless of who operates the machines.

Also Deere's GPS automatic guidance technology and vehicle telematics are now becoming available for golf and turf customers, through the new GPS PrecisionSprayer. Carnoustie has three of the first machines to be sold in Europe as part of the deal.

In terms of Rain Bird, following a topographical system analysis and other investigations conducted by specialist consultants, Carnoustie, supported by Rain Bird UK’s golf distributor Rigby Taylor, will embark on a full renovation of each of its courses to upgrade them with advanced irrigation technologies.

They will benefit from Rain Bird’s Cirrus Central Control System combined with Integrated Control, which enables real-time, two-way communications between the control system and other components. The system will be fine tuned to continually monitor conditions across the Links and apply the precise amount of irrigation each area needs.