Golf Business News – Wiedenmann Terra Float Air Variety delivers long-term improvements to Glen GC

The Glen Golf Club, East Links, North Berwick has acquired a Terra Float Air guide from Wiedenmann UK’s exclusive dealer in Scotland, Fairways GM.

Course manager, Des Kerr, said the new purchase was part of an integrated approach to changing golf course needs.

“As curators, proofreading is becoming more and more important. Year round golf and high footfall, means we need the right tools to recover from these growing demands and stay stable.

“We have a consultant in place and plans are in place for the next few years to include waste management programs and bin replacement.

“However, this purchase prioritizes greenness and our methods. “Having a dedicated salesperson is essential to the job and our agronomist, Chris Haspell, has helped us get it right,” said Des.

With levels as low as 1g/m², Wiedenmann’s Air offers best-in-class properties. The operator puts the selected seeds into the dosing sleeves of the same size. Next, the seed bed is cut by choosing from a list of hole-making tools, including stars and cone-shaped ones, from 5 mm in diameter. Tools are mounted on a heavy-duty 3-part spike roller that follows contours. It loosens and aerates the soil up to 30 mm, creating uniform seed pots.

Electric drive technology is used in all aspects of seed delivery; the seeding sleeves and the fan are both electrically operated. The seeds are carried by air down a series of eight pipes to the deflector plates, which direct the seeds into the ‘pots.’

After the seed is in the ground, a two-layer sweeping brush follows and it also has floating features. Another three-piece roller provides a brush and roller combination that is perfect for mixing top dressings down, before sliding up.

The in-cab computer stores data from previous operations and allows changes to the application level at any time.

“We have a mixture of sandy soil and very heavy clay soil, here,” explained Des. “It’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all kind of place, so the planter had to be versatile. One of the advantages of Air is that it works equally well with both fescue and ryegrass seeds. It is easy to do deep seeding with fescue and shallow seeding with bending. Barenbrug Fescue – a blend of five plant species – and Barenbrug’s ‘All Bent’ mix are our seed of choice.

“It’s a lot in the first set but luckily, Wiedenmann’s Andy Kerr did a lot in the set. He edited it and showed us how to fine tune it if we needed to make changes. It’s not a complicated machine once you get the first order. It’s straight forward, the second you look at the computer and pick up where we left off. It’s very much plug and play.”

Like many of Wiedenmann’s Air customers, Des Kerr likes the ‘small and often overlooked approach’.

“If the conditions are good and there is a chance to ‘go’ we can go out quickly. We have to time everything right to fit the play. If you sow a bend at a very shallow depth you get a quick recovery at the top, so there is very little disturbance to golfers following even considering all our spears. That was another feature that led us to Air, that we can sow a curve, make light sand and no one can see it’s been there.

“For starters, Air is very focused on the greens and surrounding areas – other areas such as tees and fairways will follow. The idea is to start pushing off course. Sometimes we will use it as an active roller to open the upper area,” concludes Des.

Des leads a full-time team of six groundskeepers plus a course mechanic at a busy East Lothian club that can trace its roots back to the 17th century.

Fairways GM’s sales and business development manager, Rob Hogarth, and Wiedenmann UK’s lead sales representative, Andy Kerr provided sales support throughout the process.