BACK-UP MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
For club's investment decision

Alec MacIndoe, course manager  of West Surrey Golf Club has said, “It’s fair to say that if it wasn’t for the dealer back-up and the relationship I’ve built up over the years with James Moore of Farol and John Deere, I wouldn’t still be using their machinery, it’s that simple.”

 

The club near Godalming earlier this year completed their second John Deere course maintenance equipment package deal with Farol.

 

(Front right & left) West Surrey Golf Club course manager Alec MacIndoe with dealer Farol golf & grass director James Moore and greenkeeping staff (rear left to right) Tom Horton, Morgan Jenkins, mechanic Steve Cook, Barry Cannon and Greg Richardson

 

The latest fleet of 22 machines - mostly bought on a John Deere Financial operating lease with some on hire purchase - includes four of the company’s brand new 2750 E-Cut hybrid electric triplex mowers, as well as fairway, tees & surrounds and walk-behind greens mowers, a ProGator utility vehicle equipped with an HD200 sprayer, TX Turf Gators and a zero-turn rotary mower.

 

“We recently completed an £800,000 refurbishment of the clubhouse, renewed or redesigned all of the course’s 64 bunkers, and we’re a long way down the line with upgrading the irrigation system, so the club has proved it’s progressive and committed to investing in the facilities,” says Alec. “I did a lot of work with James Moore to identify and settle on the best options for this latest replacement package, while trying as far as possible to maintain the same financial commitment as before, so as not to overstretch the budget.

 

“My main question to Farol and John Deere was, as we’re already at a high level, how can we get even better and extend the quality of the playing surfaces even further? I was lucky enough to be shown the answer at the John Deere Classic in the US last year, where I saw the new 2750E for the first time, alongside the company’s GPS PrecisionSprayer and autonomous mower.

 

“Having this opportunity to see where John Deere was making positive changes to its equipment, particularly with the 2750E mowers, was a real eye-opener. These new mowers have changed our cutting regime massively and I’ve been enormously impressed with the improvement in quality, we’re now getting a much better finish.

 

“The original idea was to hand mow the greens for most of the summer, but we found that the 2750E gives us the same pace on our USGA spec greens as the walk-behinds. We’d never cut the greens for the club championship with a triplex before, and the positive feedback we got was amazing. We will still hand mow through the winter though, and just use the triples at the weekends.

 

“We had 7700 fairway mowers in the first package, equipped with QA7 cutting units, but this time round we went for the 7500AE with QA5s, also for the better quality of cut they offer – we’re always looking for improvements in whatever we do.

 

"We’re now cutting the fairways at 12mm, and the difference in sward quality is huge."

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EDITOR'S BLOG
WINTER IS COMING
NEWS
ENGLAND GOLF CHALLENGE THE CLOSING OF COURSES
GMA LAUNCHES LEVEL 2 WINTER PITCH TRAINING
ONLINE DEMOS LAUNCHED BY BERNHARD
BALMERS JOIN INFINICUT NETWORK
GGM HELP CLUB FUTUREPROOF
KIOTI UK MOVE HOME
BACK-UP MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
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