I had the fantastic opportunity to work in this interesting country between 2002 and 2007. For the previous 10 years I had worked at Marriott Dalmahoy near Edinburgh Scotland where I had combined a fairly hectic tournament playing schedule with a fair amount of coaching. At the end of the playing season 2002 I was approached to see whether I would be interested to take up a position in Croatia near the capital city of Zagreb. Having discussed the opportunity with my wife we decided it would be interesting to live in a different country and as the kids were not due to start school for two years we had the possibility to be adventurous.
FEGGA Bringing Together People and Organisations to their Conference in Copenhagen
The Federation of European Golf Greenkeepers Associations (FEGGA) recently held their annual Conference in the northern European city of Copenhagen. The conference brought together some 44 organisations from Europe and beyond with an agenda filled with many of the pertinent subjects challenging the golf industry today. The Conference was held at two venues this year; this first day was held at the wonderful and unique setting of Copenhagen Golf Club, where the delegates were treated to a tour of the golf course following a busy seminar schedule. The second day was held at the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel, which provided excellent facilities for the formalities of the seminar day, along with other meetings coming under the umbrella of the FEGGA Conference.
Tournament preperation
14-05-2009
Those two words can cause fear or excitement on the golf course. At the least they mean long hours for everyone, very early starts and for me personally, very late finishes as I’m mostly the last to leave. It has been known for me not to leave at all, preferring to sleep in my truck ready for the next day’s early start.
Rotary Mower Blades
14-05-2009
As part of our regular quest for the perfect aftercut appearance, we diligently sharpen and maintain the blades on our rotary cutting units. We make sure that the blades are sharp and able to provide the cleanest cut possible to continuously chase that perfect aftercut appearance. But are you also aware that there are a couple other areas of the blade that need to be checked to make sure that the blades are structurally sound and also to make sure that there is no other condition with the blade that can make the entire machine require more power to operate and decrease the overall efficiency of the unit.
RANSOMES JACOBSEN CONTINUES TO INVEST IN NEW PRODUCTS DESPITE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN
15-04-2009
Ransomes Jacobsen and its affiliate company Jacobsen based in Charlotte, North Carolina, continue to invest in new products that demonstrate their unrivalled commitment to the sector, despite the economic downturn. Ransomes Jacobsen and Jacobsen are Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) companies.
Core products go back to the roots of Groundsman Industries
16-04-2009
Groundsman Industries celebrate two decades since the inception of their unique elliptical plunge action mechanism now used in their range of pedestrian and tractor mounting turf aerators which have carved a reputation for simplicity, performance and reliability.
The good oil
18-04-2009
Whether mineral or synthetic, the
quality of oil used in any machine
will have a major bearing on its
performance and life expectancy.
Here Royal Melbourne Golf Club
turf technician Luke Spartalis gives
the lowdown on the lifeblood of any
machine and poses the question –
mineral or synthetic?
ROYAL BELFAST GOLF CLUB’S PIONEERING APPROACH TO MAINTAINING STEEP SLOPES USING RANSOMES SPIDER MOWER
18-09-2009
The oldest golf club in Ireland, the Royal Belfast, founded in 1881, has taken a pioneering approach to managing its steep banks and slopes with the introduction of a Ransomes Spider II remote controlled mower from local RANSOMES JACOBSEN dealer Broderick (Northern Ireland) Ltd. RANSOMES JACOBSEN is a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company.
RANSOMES JACOBSEN MOWER RIDES THE HIGH SEAS
19-03-2009
Ransomes Jacobsen, the Ipswich-based turf maintenance equipment manufacturer, has supplied one of their newest state-of-the-art walk-behind mowers for an unusual application – mowing an extensive area of natural grass lawn on Celebrity Cruise Lines latest cruise ship, the Celebrity Solstice. Ransomes Jacobsen is a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company.
RTJ - going to extraordinary lengths
19-04-2009
David McGregor is a former intern of the Ohio State University programme (see issue 12). As part of the programme he worked on the US President's golf green at the White House and was seconded to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, USA.
‘THANK YOU’ TO GENESIS ORWELL MENCAP DURING VISIT TO RANSOMES JACOBSEN
20-07-2009
A party of managers and team members from Genesis Garden Furniture, part of the Genesis Orwell Mencap organisation, visited Ransomes Jacobsen recently to receive a personal thank you from Managing Director David Withers, in recognition of their contribution supplying bespoke wooden furniture for the company’s three-hole golf course. Ransomes Jacobsen is a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company.
The tide is high!
21-04-2009
Royal West Norfolk Golf Club has a postal address of King's Lynn but is, as the crow flies, closer to Skegness on the other side of the Wash. It is a unique course in many ways, not least that the tide has a huge effect on getting to and from the golf course
SALDANA GOLF CLUB’S NEW E-Z-GO GOLF CAR FLEET
21-07-2009
Saldana Golf Club, located six kilometres from Burgos in northern Spain, has recently purchased 16 of the latest electric E-Z-GO RXV golf cars from local distributor Green Mowers. E-Z-GO is a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company.
Workshop technicians 3
27-04-2009
I have a commissioning process for new machines that helps me to order parts and claim warrantees, when the machine may not be readily to hand and to record other information relevant to that machine that will be required at some time in the future. It goes something like this:
Workshop technicians 4
27-04-2009
So you want some grinders?
A simple costing exercise is needed to clarify things for the people who sign the cheques for capital expenditure. Start with: ~
Workshop Technicians (part 1)
30-03-2009
Here at The Celtic Manor Resort we have a large, well equipped, well stocked workshop facility employing three mechanics and a workshop manager. That is to maintain and service machines for 54 holes, a large practice area, driving range, chipping greens, machines operated by various departments in the hotel and golf club plus the golf cart hire fleet and course ranger vehicles. There are sometimes not enough hours in the day and with such a large fleet of diverse machinery it is understandable why there is a considerable workforce to maintain it.
But what about the economics of employing in house mechanics as opposed to contracting out repairs and servicing?
In the past I have worked as a single handed mechanic on a large golf complex consisting of two golf courses and no hire fleet, that was a busy job and was only just manageable with machinery levels “only just there”, and by that I mean that there was very little flexibility for machinery down time.
Workshop Technicians (part2)
30-03-2009
Here at The Celtic Manor Resort we keep a fairly large stock of parts to minimise down time but it can soon get out of hand if not carefully monitored, nonetheless it is essential to keep a certain amount of stock rather than working on a “just in time “ basis, which would work well if only we were clairvoyant.
The result of so much servicing is large amounts of “controlled waste”, oil filters, fuel filters, oil, grease cartridges, oily cloths, soak up pads and aerosols. Expand this still further with batteries, oil containers and drums, waste antifreeze, brake fluid and contaminated fuels the “controlled waste” becomes easier said than dealt with. We have an excellent company who removes all of the above items and generates the relevant paperwork to enable the correct audit trail to be maintained as legislation demands. This company also removes our waste chemical containers, gloves, spray suits and all other spraying related items, all this at a modest fixed annual cost for as many items as you need removed and as often as they need removing, I would recommend them to anyone. Tyre disposal is one thing they don’t touch and with a fleet as big as ours they are a problem. There are around 1000 potential punctures/tyre changes to deal with and the spent tyres soon mount up. It is essential to sort out their disposal sooner rather than later, your local tyre distributor may well dispose of two dozen tyres without too much hassle but one hundred may be another matter.
