A robots and Trimax trailed mowers are working side by side to improve productivity, free up valuable staff time and keep a demanding parkland course under control.
GREENKEEPING
The Right Machine for the job: How Long Sutton Golf Club is Combining Robots and Trailed Mowers.
t Long Sutton Golf Club,
A robots and Trimax trailed mowers are working side by side to improve productivity, free up valuable staff time and keep a demanding parkland course under control.
At Long Sutton Golf Club in Somerset, three robotic mowers work through the night cutting the fairways. By day, Trimax Pegasus and Snake trailed rotary mowers tackle the first cut, heavier growth and the leaf litter and debris that come with maintaining an extensive parkland course.
For Course Manager Jonathan Tulk, the combination is proving more productive than relying on either approach alone.
The right machine for the job
Set across approximately 142 acres, Long Sutton is maintained by a fourperson greenkeeping team. With rising diesel costs and the increasing price of dedicated fairway machinery, the club introduced robotic mowers as a more costeffective way of maintaining its fairways.
The robots have performed well, but their biggest benefit has been the time they have released for the team.
“ The biggest benefit we have seen since installing the robots is our ability to prioritise our workload,” says Jonathan.“ Our staff aren’ t spending hours sat on fairway mowers and now have more time to manage other tasks, including aerating, fixing irrigation problems and other projects that wouldn’ t have got prioritised.”
The robots take care of the repetitive fairway mowing, while the Trimax mowers handle areas and conditions where speed, capacity and robustness are more important.
Built for demanding parkland conditions
As a heavily wooded parkland course, Long Sutton faces a particular challenge: windy conditions can leave considerable quantities of leaves, twigs and small branches across the course – material that can damage the blades of robotic mowers.
This is where the Trimax Pegasus and Snake come into their own.
“ We use the Trimax mowers for our first cut because of the leaf litter and debris, especially after storms. The robots wouldn’ t be able to cope with small twigs or branches.”
The ability to deal with these conditions while covering large areas quickly is a key reason Long Sutton continues to rely on its Trimax mowers.
“ We like using Trimax because the quality of cut is really high. The speed in which we can get the ground covered is very good, and the reliability of the machines is second to none.”
Productivity when it matters
For a four-person team responsible for maintaining 142 acres to a high
28 GroundskeepingJournal. co. uk | November / December 2026