Under the new deal, which will see Crown Golf invest a minimum of £15,000 per year on Barenbrug seed, all nine UK golf courses owned and managed by Crown are being re-seeded with a variety of the company’s specialist products for fairways, tees and greens.
Mark Heath, group course manager, said, “We looked at all the top seed companies and Barenbrug came up with the best choice and quality of cultivars for our courses. The group’s course managers held an open discussion and overwhelmingly voted to go with the company.
“This is a new venture for us. We wanted better control of quality on the courses, so we decided for the first time to go for one preferred supplier,” he added. “I see Barenbrug as the number one in seed, so I‘m very happy with the agreement.”
As part of the new deal, over seeding of fairways is underway at two courses – Batchworth Park, in Rickmansworth, and The Vale, in Evesham, – using a Barenbrug pure ryegrass mix. “A number of courses suffered during last year’s drought, which meant it was necessary to re-seed some areas of fairways,” explained Mark. “We used this ryegrass mix and the results have been very good, so we plan to sow it on all the courses now.”
Selected courses will use both BAR All Bent and a bent fescue mix for greens, while others will sow Barifera creeping bent. Other cultivars for tees and greens, such as Heriot, Barcrown and Bargold, will also be used, with the focus predominantly on mixtures and cultivars that offer drought tolerant characteristics.
Barenbrug UK managing director Paul Johnson commented, “We are delighted to be working with Crown Golf because their commitment to quality compliments our own. Through this agreement they will not only receive the best seed, but our own specialist service of problem solving, technical know-how and years of research and experience. In this way we can meet the individual needs of each course while maintaining consistency of quality throughout the group.”
Barenbrug www.barenbrug.co.uk
Crown Golf www.crown-golf.co.uk
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