Following on from Toro’s 100 years in business in 2014, the company is now celebrating its centennial milestone serving the golf industry.

The Toro Company made its entry into the golf sector by developing the industry’s first motorised fairway mower for the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis.

The Toro Standard Golf Machine, Minikahda endorsement brochure cover

By mounting five lawn mowers on the front of a farm tractor, the company say they created the motorised golf course equipment industry and in doing so started a century of listening closely to its customers, developing products based on feedback and available technology, long-standing customer relationships, and establishing a distribution network to deliver local service and support.

Reesink Turfcare, or Lely Turfcare as it was, has been part of that journey as the sole Toro distributor in the UK for golf and sports fields equipment and irrigation products for almost half that time.

Grant Young, general manager of Toro’s Commercial Business, said of the occasion, "Without a doubt, we owe much of our success to the Toro employees who have helped shape the golf industry with countless innovations. But we wouldn’t be here today without the Toro customers across the globe who put their faith and trust in our products every day. As we celebrate a century in the golf industry, we simply want to say thank you to our customers and channel partners for continuing to put your trust in Toro people and products.”

David Cole, managing director of Reesink Turfcare, said, “The first Toro product to hit UK shores was the Toro Greensmaster 3 at the beginning of the 1970s. That ride-on product was born from Toro’s established golf focus and projected the brand into the UK as a producer of high quality, innovative golf equipment in the UK.

“Since then a reputation has been built that centres on reliability, durability and support and a mutual trust has developed between our customers, us as distributor and Toro which can be truly viewed as a partnership.

"We’re extremely proud to have represented Toro and its product values for so many years and we also thank our UK golf customers for their long-standing loyalty, confidence and trust.”