Muir-Of-Ord Golf Club chooses Toro for the first time

By Alistair May 2, 2020 07:59 Updated

Muir-Of-Ord Golf Club, located a few miles north of Inverness in Scotland, has chosen to invest in Toro for the first time, purchasing a ProCore 648 pedestrian aerator to enable quality aeration across the whole course.

Head greenkeeper, Darren Hexley, explains: “We’ve never had Toro at the club before, but once our old aerator was reaching the end of its life, we seized the opportunity to improve the course with Toro. We’d been working with a tractor-mounted aerator and were keen to get a pedestrian aerator so we could access more areas of the course.”

Years of research, customer input, testing and attention to detail went into making the ProCore 648 the most productive and efficient walking aerator on the market, something Muir-Of-Ord is now experiencing.

“We noticed a difference from just the demonstration,” says Darren. “Staff and golfers have commented on the improvement that can be seen already. As a pedestrian aerator, we no longer have to drive over greens, and with no tyre tracks it’s a much cleaner job. But the biggest thing is that we’ve been able to cover areas of the course we weren’t able to before, such as slopes and the backs of bunkers. The benefits of this is huge. With just one Toro addition to our fleet we’re able to vastly improve the course.”

Darren is no stranger to the quality and results from Toro having previous experience with the brand, he says: “I’ve used Toro before at previous clubs, and indeed the ProCore 648, so it was no surprise that it proved itself here to be a brilliant piece of kit. We could instantly see the benefits of the ProCore 648 over our old kit.”

It’s not just the improvement to the course that matters though. As a club with only three permanent staff members working on the course maintenance, having efficient and reliable machinery is vital. Something the ProCore 648 certainly delivers on.

“With only three of us on the greenkeeping team, having efficient and reliable machinery is very important and goes a long way,” says Darren. “The ProCore 648 will allow us to get out first thing in the summer and cover more ground than we could with our tractor-mounted aerator in the same time. The variable speed setting also really helps with that – it provides a consistent speed for a more even application.”

With the club’s only Toro machine having made such a difference to both the productivity of the staff and the quality of the playing surface, it seems only natural Darren is now wanting to bring more Toro on board.

“Once we’re in a position financially to make further machinery investment, it is certainly my preference to look to Toro. It would be great to invest in some of the latest technology, in particular one of Toro’s hybrid mowers.”