Young Buck takes over at Knole Park
Knole Park Golf Club is located within 1000 acres of outstanding ancient parkland, which is also home to the finest deer herd in the southeast of England.
Maintaining the playing surface is always a difficult task, but it was with some reluctance that head greenkeeper Gavin Kyle decided it was time for his ageing Wiedenmann P160 deep aerator, after 12 years of sterling service, to take a backseat and let one of the young bucks takeover.
Gavin saw no reason to change manufacturer as the P160 had provided over a decade of exemplary service performing the onerous task of aerating and relieving compaction on the course.
"The P160 has been superb; although we haven't retired it, we have replaced it with the most modern version, a Terra Spike XP160, to perform most of aeration tasks on the greens, tees and fairways", he said. "We are now into our second season with the XP and it's performing very well. To set it up is quick, it's easy to use and together with a New Holland tractor it makes a great combination.
Gavin believes that aeration is a much undervalued task, which is seen by some golfers as an unnecessary disturbance of their playing surface.
"However, it's a vital element of my turf maintenance regime", he added. "It keeps the surface open, encourages root development and relieves compaction to help create a better surface. The P160 will only be used for fairway work in future, but by using both machines I can get the task done quicker."
