Continued investment and the hard work of the greenkeeping team has seen the 18-hole course at Risebridge Golf Centre in Essex go from strength to strength – as has the club’s relationship with dealers George Browns Ltd, which has recently installed another batch of maintenance equipment, adding to an already sizeable fleet from brands including Baroness and Kubota.
Spearheading the full-time team of four is Head Greenkeeper Doug Mackison, who explains how George Browns Ltd have played a supporting role in operations across the parkland course for the last four years.
He said: “We struck up a relationship with Tim Mason initially, who helped us out with some hire equipment before the funding became available to invest. By this point I’d been in the industry for over 40 years and in that time there weren’t many brands of mower I hadn’t tried. Baroness, however, was one of them but Tim demonstrated how good the cut performance and build quality was and it was on the back of this that we purchased a fleet of fairway mowers, greens and tees mowers and a bunker rake. We’ve not looked back since!”
An L1-382 compact tractor, Z122R zero-turn mower and RTVX-1440 from Kubota quickly followed, with a Baroness GM2810 rough mower, LM531 fairway mower and SP05 bunker rake the most recent additions, delivered in October 2023.
“What I like about all of the Kubota and Baroness equipment is that they’re not all computerised, it’s very intuitive to operate and you still feel in control of the job at hand.” Doug continues, “Luke Farrow installed the recent trio, he was very knowledgeable and helpful throughout the procurement process and continues to support us as we get to grips with our new machines.
“Actually, the support we’ve had from George Browns Ltd has always been excellent! We go to them for some of the annual servicing requirements and the rest of the time they’re always on hand to answer questions from our mechanic. On the odd occasion we’ve needed a spare part, these have always been supplied quickly.”
He adds: “It’s the whole package which keeps us loyal. The top service and the 13 machines that George Browns Ltd have supplied are a real asset to us and our course.”