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John Deere on the Downs
Set in the midst of the beautiful South Downs, East Sussex National Golf Resort & Spa near Uckfield in East Sussex has been running John Deere machines since 1988. All have been supplied by local dealer Palmers Turfcare of Hailsham, one of John Deere’s four original groundscare dealers when the company set up the new division in 1986.
The two championship golf courses and academy facilities, including a 13 acre driving range, three putting greens and a championship standard three-hole academy course, are maintained to the highest standards by course manager Scott Litchfield and his team of 20 staff. The John Deere fleet now numbers over 50 machines, and includes mowers for use from tees to greens, Gator utility vehicles, compact and utility tractors and a bunker rake, all maintained by two mechanics.
The club hosts this year’s Tillman Trophy, the UK’s largest amateur competition, across both courses in July, and the greens staff are currently busy working towards that, concentrating mainly on the East Course.
At this time of year, a lot of work is done on bunker renovations and reconstruction, taking out and replacing the sand, and sorting out the drainage so that the bunkers don’t fill up with water. With its extra capacity and tipping load bed, the club’s new John Deere Pro Gator utility vehicle is a particularly useful tool for this job, says assistant course manager Neil Gearing. The vehicle’s four wheel drive gets it in and out of the bunkers easily, and the staff use it for taking out the old sand which is then recycled by spreading it onto the walkways between the greens and tees.
To extend its versatility, the Pro Gator can also be fitted with John Deere’s HD200 low profile sprayer equipped with a shrouded boom to allow the machine to spray mostly fertilisers across what is quite a windy site.
A 19 year old 855 compact tractor is still regularly used for a wide range of jobs around the course, including grass rolling and trailer work, paying testament to the longevity and reliability of John Deere equipment. The club originally bought a fleet of six, as well as a similar number of John Deere 1550 44hp agricultural tractors that were used in the construction of the course prior to its official opening in 1990.
One of the biggest changes over this time has been in operator comfort, reckons Scott Litchfield. “We buy a variety of equipment to do different jobs, and the staff need to be able to move easily around the different machines,” he says.
“With the control console now part of the seat on a range of John Deere mowers, it doesn’t matter which operator uses the machine, he always sits in the same place relative to the controls, and this makes a big difference. It’s a good example of how the company listens to customer feedback before developing new machines or making improvements to existing ones.”
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