Meldrum House Country Hotel & Golf Course in Scotland has become the latest facility in a rapidly growing list to praise the versatility and effective aeration delivered by a Carrier and Verti-Drain 1513 from Redexim.
Delivered fours months ago by HRN Tractors, the combination has already been put through its paces, hollow coring the greens and handling the undulations of the site with ease, as Golf Course and Grounds Manager Kenny Harper looks to increase aeration to better withstand increasingly wetter winters.
This latest purchase is part of major ongoing investment by the new owners of Meldrum House, Apex Hotels Ltd, as they look to build on the course’s reputation as one of the finest facilities in Scotland – nestled into the parkland surroundings of Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire. That claim means that client expectations are high when it comes to course condition, with Kenny supported by a team of ten on the year-round maintenance.
“Last winter was one of the wettest on record which is making most elements of our job more difficult and means operations like aeration are more important than ever” Harper explains.
“We tried all makes and models of tractor mounted aerator then contacted HRN Tractors, who we know quite well, about the Redexim Carrier and Verti-Drain. HRN’s Wilson Morrison, together with Allen Whellans from Redexim, were both on the ball from the very first phone call. They arrived on time and the demonstration was impressive – the build quality in particular filled us all with the confidence that the machines are going to last. Ticking all the boxes, we took delivery in June and are so happy with our decision.”
Harper continues: “The variation in working depth, together with the range of tine options available, is something we really like and gives us much greater versatility and flexibility than our previous aeration set-up. We’ve already hollow cored with 8mm tines and can swap these for solid tines and work down to depths of six inches which we’ve not been able to do before and will significantly improve our greens drainage.”
The Verti-Drain 1513 offers high-speed, low disturbance aeration. Paired up with the Redexim Carrier, the combination offers a lightweight solution for annual maintenance on sensitive turf areas such as golf greens.
“The Carrier is powered by a 31hp engine so we’ve effectively gained a power unit which we can use with a range of implements. It’s also fantastic and easy to control over the contours on our site,” said Harper. “This was our first experience of Redexim and we went into it with a ‘nothing ventured’ attitude but we’ve definitely ‘gained’ an incredibly versatile set-up and hopefully the course and the members will all gain too as a result.”