Nefyn & District Golf Club in North Wales has met the challenge of maintaining a Top 100 rated course and controlling the costs of machinery replacement using John Deere’s new PowerGard maintenance and protection plan for golf course equipment.
“As machines get older, they eventually go beyond their economic life – at worst, it can cost substantially more to repair a machine than it is actually worth,” says Nefyn’s secretary/manager Simon Dennis. “I don’t believe it’s sustainable to simply keep replacing one old machine with a new one, as and when the maintenance and repair bills start to reach unacceptably high levels.
“Greens chairman Dick Roberts, course manager Pat McAteer and I therefore conducted a complete asset register of the club’s course maintenance equipment to identify exactly what was required to upgrade the fleet. With five greenkeeping staff maintaining 26 holes in challenging conditions, we need a sensible amount of kit and reliable after-sales support and service back-up to give us the required standard of course presentation in a timely and cost-effective fashion.
“We decided to ask for competitive quotes on new machinery, based on economic running and maintenance costs plus the total cost of ownership. This led to us consider outright purchase or financed lease options plus a full service and maintenance package as the best way forward for the club to fix our costs, and purchase reliable machines with a good resale value.”
Nefyn eventually agreed a package deal with local dealer Mona Tractors for three new John Deere mowers – a 2500E hybrid greens mower, a 7200 tees & surrounds mower and an 8700 fairway mower – and took out a five-year John Deere Financial lease with PowerGard Protection Plus cover, based on monthly fixed payments.
They also opted for an additional service contract to cover the older John Deere machines already at the club, including another 2500E greens mower, a ProGator and two HPX Gator utility vehicles and a 4720 compact tractor.
“Based on an objective evaluation of all the bids and comparing like with like, the committee decided the John Deere package gave the best value and the most economically advantageous offer,” says Simon Dennis. “The five-year PowerGard plan was included from the start of the tender process, and there were no hidden costs – all the options we wanted were identified and included. Ultimately the saving we made meant we could also afford to invest in one or two extra items.”
“Under the PowerGard contract, the mowers have their own individually tailored maintenance programme, based on total hours worked,” adds Pat McAteer. “All the machines are getting continuous checks, and we simply call the dealer when a PowerGard milestone is approaching. Maintaining and monitoring the fleet in this way is a good discipline, and it also has the added benefit of supporting our health and safety procedures. PowerGard keeps us on our toes, and the dealer on its toes too.”
“I can foresee that this approach to machinery purchasing will become the model for future investment,” Simon Dennis concludes. “The key driver for us is having a fixed service and maintenance charge for as high a percentage of our machinery fleet as we can, while being able to maintain both a high level of course presentation and Nefyn as a top quality, must play golfing destination.”
John Deere www.JohnDeere.com
Nefyn & District Golf Club www.nefyn-golf-club.co.uk/en/