Dan Kendle, course manager at Newquay Golf Club in Cornwall, readily acknowledges his Wiedenmann Terra Float Air as invaluable.
In August 2021, he and his team, which now numbers six, took delivery of theirs from, David Barnes, turf sales specialist at dealer, Mason Kings.
The club sits behind Fistral Beach, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and is continuously busy.
“The Air has become one of my favourite pieces of kit; we get out as often as we can to keep pumping seed in at all different rates.
“Predominantly, we use it on greens; we load it with fescue and go around maybe six or seven times a year, but it does get used on tees and fairways, too.
“If there’s been a little bit of disease or salt damage from a storm, that’s an additional reason to go. In the days after Storm Darragh in December, it was still 13 or 14 degrees, so we were able to visit some of the sea facing greens and put some seed down. Since then it’s got a good bit colder, but even if the seed sits in the holes until spring, when the weather starts to warm up, there’s no harm. We went out at 5 grammes per square metre but the rate can be anywhere between 5 g / m²- 18 g /m², depending on the time of year. We generally go a bit higher at the two maintenance periods – one at the end of March, the other the beginning of August, so about 18 g / m² then, but at all other times, between 6 g and 12 g.
“We alternate between DLF MM Coastal and Barenbrug Shoreline, to mix up the cultivars, and can store this data on the on board computer to remember.
“There’s been a continuous improvement each of the last three years with more fescue added. Improving sward composition is a slow process but it’s definitely happening and I’m really pleased.
“Ours is a very busy course which only closes if the weather forces our hand, so on rare occasions of snow or storms.
“The beauty of the Terra Float Air is that it can go out ahead of golfers. We always prepare by putting a bit of top dressing down ahead which helps as a carrier to get the seed into the holes, and then after, we stick an iron behind to roll and smooth. The golfers barely notice we’ve been out. It’s just easy and that’s what I love about it most…it causes no fuss.
“There’s no major clear up behind. It gets done and you move on, just easy.”
