Electric greens mower for Country Club

Electric greens mower for Country Club

Humberston Country Club, one of the 61 UK leisure facilities owned by Esporta, has recently taken delivery of a Jacobsen E-Plex II electric greens mower for the 9-hole golf course at the prestigious leisure facility.

Richard Smith is the Golf and Maintenance Manager at the club, which is located on the outskirts of Grimsby, and he has a remit to improve the playing facilities for members. Since taking up his post just under 2 years ago significant improvements have been made and the membership has already doubled.

"The main driver for purchasing the E-Plex is the need to cut early in the morning, especially when we are preparing for competitions," he said. "Being situated close to a residential area can cause problems, but now we can get out at 6am on a Saturday morning and prepare the greens. The other advantage is that maintenance costs are low; there are very few moving parts and the new heavy duty Trojan batteries give us plenty of power and range. The final factor is the quality of cut; with electric powered reels the rotation is constant, unlike hydraulically driven reels which can be affected by power surges from a diesel or petrol engine. The electric reels provide a very consistent rate of cut per metre."

Richard has a wealth of greenkeeping experience and understands the need for quality playing surfaces, whether it's a 36-hole or a 9-hole complex. He began his career at Market Rasen Golf Club before moving to Germany to work at a new course at Golf Club Lich near Frankfurt. He returned to the UK as head greenkeeper at Immingham Golf Club, where he attained his NVQ Level 4 in greenkeeping management. As a result of achieving the best marks in the UK he was offered an internship at Ohio State University and spent 12 months at Royal Poinchina Golf Club in Florida. From here he went to the Jack Nicklaus signature course at Muirfield Village in Ohio and project managed the rebuilding of 12 greens. His final appointment before returning to Humberston was as golf course manager at Golf Club Linz, the prestigious Austrian Championship course.

"No matter what size of course you manage, there are always challenges. We are already seeing significant improvements here at Humberston and quality equipment, like the E-Plex, will play a major part in our improvement programme," he said.