Andy Butler Sports Ground Specialist has been putting the first Air2G2 in the Isle of Wight to work on bowling greens, golf courses, cricket squares, football pitches and croquet lawns.
Former greenkeeper, Andy Butler, knows the importance of an open root zone and has seen the difference the Air2G2 can make first hand on the surfaces he’s used it on since the start of July 2017.
His main intention is to use the machine for annual maintenance on his bowling green contracts on the island and along the south coast, as well as the prospect of multiple golf courses across the Isle of Wight.
The Air2G2’s use across multiple sports surfaces comes from the universal benefit of relieving compaction within a root zone, but Andy stresses it is the machine as a complete package that makes it so effective.
“I think the main advantage is that there is very limited disruption when you use the Air2G2,” he said.
“That means it can be used throughout the bowls season on the greens and on golf courses. And then in the winter months when you’d struggle to get a tractor onto the greens you can use it because it’s a pedestrian machine and light.
“I’ve tried to explain to the bowls and golf clubs that if they can afford it using the machine a minimum of four times would be very beneficial for the type of greens that we look after.
“There was one bowling green on the island that we look after on an annual basis, and at the beginning of the season we had severe dry patch. That was the first job I used the machine on, I went over it and then applied the wetting agent and that evening it rained, and within three or four days the green had transformed from being dry and patchy to being a good even surface again.
“As a result, the bowls club are keen to get on board with the Air2G2 because they can see the advantages of it. Overall, we’ve had a very positive reaction from our customers who have seen it working.”
Along with the more obvious uses of the machine, Andy is also looking to experiment with the impact it can have on cricket wickets. This experiment will take place at Newclose Cricket Ground, the venue where Hampshire seconds play a majority of their league games.
The aim is to see if using the Air2G2 encourages the root growth to go deeper. By doing this Andy aims to see if the playing characteristics of the wicket are altered in any way, with the only concern being any slight root breaks.
Monitoring the performance of the wickets will be key to determining how well the experiment has worked, but it does open up another possibility for an already very popular machine.
