INDUSTRY EQUIPMENT
The green-keeping team has
standardised its fleet on Smith Power
Equipment-supplied Toro machines
2 750rpm, provides the performance
needed to use on greens and all areas
around greens. Ross says they have since
placed an order of another 3250-D, which
Stephen Mangold, national sales manager
– Toro and Club Car at Smith Power
Equipment, says will be delivered at the
start of July this year.
Also on site is the Groundsmaster
3500 – a revolutionary triplex rotary
mower designed for superior performance
trimming. The free-floating Contour Plus
cutting decks allow mowing of undulating
terrain without scalping. The powerful
engine and exclusive traction drive system,
gets the mowing job done quickly.
“On the green surrounds, considering
the tighter and complex nature of the
area, we use a turf aerator, and then
the Greenmaster 3250-D to get around
those little corners. Our green side
bunkers are quite close to the greens,
some areas are maximum half a metre
between them. That’s why we prefer the
3250 in those areas where space is at a
premium,” says Ross.
Houghton Golf Club also a owns two
Toro Workman MDX units, a Toro 1250 spray
tank and six Flex 2120 walk-behind mowers.
The spray tank is used to spray everything
from greens and tees to fairways. “I use
it usually every single week and can even
sometimes use it up to four times a week
on various parts of the course,” says Ross.
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
“The Workman MDXs are great utility
vehicles used to carry goods, staff and also
for towing purposes. We decided on these
units as we needed something strong and
powerful enough to tow our Flex 2120
mowers to our greens. We don’t really have
a flat course, so we needed something to
help us in that regard, literally going up and
down the course.”
The Greensmaster Flex 2120 mower
delivers pristine results time and time again
on the bentgrass greens. It cuts closely
to follow severe undulations at extremely
low heights and provides an excellent
solution for greens that require precision
mowing. The unique and patented Flex
suspension system utilises an integrated
linkage system to allow cutting units to
pivot around the centre of the front roller,
which prevents side-to-side scrubbing of the
putting surface. “One can just see the value
of having the right machine for the job right
there,” says Ross.
Standardising the fleet
Ross explains that Houghton Golf Club
has pretty much standardised its fleet
with Toro machines, following a careful
replacement process that has taken out all
competitor machines. “We have slowly but
surely converted the whole fleet into Toro
machines. We are just one machine away
from being completely Toro,” he says. “We
previously had some competitor machines
and experienced a couple of problems with
some of them and we decided to move on.”
According to Ross it’s common
knowledge in the golfing industry that
Toro is just ‘a far superior brand’. For Ross,
quality matters over price. He acknowledges
that Toro might not be the cheapest, but
the build quality of the machines is critical
for any golf course superintendent. “It
is definitely a solid product that gives us
exceptional performance,” he says.
A good product is one thing, and
support behind it is quite another. Under the
dealership of Smith Power Equipment, Toro
has enjoyed massive growth in South Africa.
For Ross, it’s also about relationships.
He started dealing with Smith Power
Equipment as far back as 2004 and has
gone on to establish a more than supplier-
customer relationship with Mangold.
Ross says green keeping is a high
performing pressurised job and this type of
support is what every greenkeeper needs
to produce the best course possible for its
members and guests. “Downtime for us
is out of the question! Remember each
machine in my fleet is allocated to a certain
area on the golf course, so if a machine
goes down, that area will naturally suffer.
Golfers want to play on a premium surface
and therefore you need machines and
support you can rely on,” says Ross.
OCTOBER 2019
27