Elm Park Golf & Sports Club has used the Imants RootPruner and Koro FIELDTOPMAKER® from Campey Turf Care Systems to improve turf performance on their golf course and grass tennis courts.
The Dublin based club is set on 39 hectares of Irish parkland three miles from Dublin city centre. Founded in 1925, the Club offers members 14 tennis courts, with seven grass and seven all-weather courts and an 18-hole golf course, driving range, and putting greens.
Like many parkland courses, tree-lined areas can suffer from roots taking vital water and nutrients away from the turf. To tackle this issue, Campey Product Specialist Brian O’Shaughnessy recommended the RootPruner, and it has given Course Superintendent Mark Sheridan precisely the results he needed.
Mark explains: “I have been fortunate to use the Imants RootPruner at Elm Park, and we have utilised the machine throughout our facility with great results. Turf alone tree lines have performed much better post pruning because the severed tree roots are no longer competing for limited water in the dryer periods of the year.”
The RootPruner prunes roots up to 100mm in diameter with no clean-up, making it useable on the course with no worries of shutting holes through surface damage. It also has the ability to decompact tight, narrow areas with ease and includes a unique patented triple-reduction planetary gearbox for smooth, maximum torque drive to the rotor shaft. The RootPruner also features a factory set, torque limiting PTO shaft eliminating all shear bolts and spring clutches.
Whilst the RootPruner has been the perfect solution on the course; the Koro FTM® has been working on the courts. The success of using the machine on Elm Park’s renowned grass courts has led Mark to plan to use it on other areas at the club.
“The Koro FTM® was used to strip our tennis courts with great results, and we are now looking at utilising this technology in the coming years to remove tee surfaces prior to reseeding,” Mark explains.
“As a result of not disrupting the root zone and therefore not compromising mechanical strength, fraise mowing allows a quick turnaround once surface cover has been re-established. I look forward to the introduction of units suitable for fraise mowing more undulating areas such as greens in the future.”
Weight and balance have been analysed to make the Koro FTM® more user-friendly for golf, resulting in a lighter, steadier experience. In addition, solid locking pins now offer greater consistency, and the overall performance is improved due to the re-designed patented UNIVERSE® rotor and angled cross conveyor.
The new angled cross conveyor has been introduced to move material evenly with perfect belt tracking. The weight of the machines has been reduced using a removable 100kg that greatly improves the overall weight balance.
The remastered Koro FTM® is available in 1.2m, 1.6m, 2.0m and 2.5m models.
