Gogarburn Golf Club, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, has put its newly arrived Wiedenmann Maredo STrac 700 maintenance system straight to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as conditions were right, Course Manager, Gregor Russell, and his team of two, cored their parkland course\u2019s 12 greens to 75 mm and scarified tees to a depth of 25 mm with excellent results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The STrac 700 is a revolutionary new way to deal with turf tasks. It forms an 8.5 hp Honda engine which powers the STrac\u2019s hydraulic hitch, which is in essence, a guiding handle. Heads or cassettes are available for overseeding, aerating, scarifying, coring, fraise mowing, sand filling and seeding. Just connect a dedicated ST head to the STrac\u2019s hydraulic hitch, then connect the mechanical PTO drive and you are ready to go. A short turning radius means the rear wheels can adopt a variety of operating positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The STrac is painted orange as a Wiedenmann machine across the world, but in the UK, has a Maredo badge. Wiedenmann UK\u2019s Lead Demonstrator, Andy Kerr, and Hayden Laing, Area Sales Manager, from local dealer, Fairways GM at Kinross, brought it to Gogarburn for demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithin minutes, we knew we were on to something good,\u201d explained Gregor. \u201cNow a few months later the equipment is installed, ready for when we need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gregor opted for two \u2018cassettes\u2019 with their purchase \u2013 the High SpeedCorer and the Flex Verticutter, both with 65 cm working width.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCoring greens is essential to rid an historic thatch layer. We chose to core at 75 mm, and every single core has come out perfectly. It\u2019s also not wrong when it says: \u2018High Speed\u2019. Each individual pass was quick but what really stood out was transfer time between holes. It\u2019s so nimble and manageable, that traversing the course is quite satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn terms of area, our tees are quite small, so get a higher volume of foot traffic, making them prone to compaction. Scarifying is important to remove the organic matter in a clean way, especially to leave minimal disruption. To begin, we chose 1.4 mm blades at 30 mm spacing and opted for full depth of 25 mm. Again, the work was neat and effortless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we use the STrac to verticut it\u2019s a revelation. Most recently we went in at a depth of 20 mm on fairways, consistently reaching that fully, in both wet areas and areas which experience more compaction. After just a few days I can see roots working their way into the created space, and the areas where we scarified are much healthier as we head into winter. We\u2019ve pulled out so much unwanted material. The clean-up post scarification was quite the job, it\u2019s left me with a big smile on my face!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe STrac is better by a considerable margin than what we have previously used here at Gogarburn. We had high expectations from the machine, but it\u2019s surpassed those already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGoing forward it brings versatility. We have scope to add cassettes for other processes; seeding for instance, will likely be our next one. However, it\u2019s good that there are already eight cassettes off the shelf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor a club like ours it\u2019s a very sustainable and cost-effective route. It\u2019s one power handle, so just one engine, ideal when you want to manage your carbon footprint. Task\u2013specific machines eat budget quickly and need space to be housed safely and securely. We don\u2019t have a huge machinery compound so the fact the STrac and cassette heads take up little storage was also a consideration,\u201d concluded Gregor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiedenmann UK\u2019s, Andy Kerr, said: \u201cAll of a sudden interest in the STrac has taken off nationwide. There\u2019s growing acknowledgement that as a pedestrian unit, this can do every task, especially in places where tractors can\u2019t go. People also really like that it lowers their carbon footprint and satisfies sustainability credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gregor joined the club full time from school in 2019 after spells of work experience and a summer casual, gaining his greenkeeping qualifications and working his way through the ranks to become Course Manager in April 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 12-hole parkland course is minutes away from Edinburgh airport and was once the location of a three-hour battle between Oliver Cromwell\u2019s army and the Covenantors in 1650.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gogarburn Golf Club, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, has put its newly arrived Wiedenmann Maredo STrac 700 maintenance system straight to work. As soon as conditions were right, Course Manager, Gregor Russell, and his team of two, cored their parkland course\u2019s 12 greens to 75 mm and scarified tees to a depth of 25 mm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[275,411,47,413,407,408,410,441,414,412,442,341,342,120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiedenmann.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}