Latest Toro innovation for Royal Norwich

By Alistair May 14, 2021 07:52 Updated

Royal Norwich continues to invest in the latest innovation from Toro. The club in Norfolk has taken advantage of the electric power revolution Toro spearheads with the delivery of an electric Workman GTX-e utility vehicle, alongside the latest pedestrian mower, Toro’s Greensmaster 1026 and is the first club in the country to order Toro’s new NozzAlert Flow Monitoring System with MultiPro 5800 sprayer.

It would have been hard to miss Toro’s meteoric rise in bringing electric and hybrid power to the turfcare market. Off the back of last years’ launch of the first all-electric riding greens mower, the Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370, it’s good to revisit the machine that in a way started it all; the Workman GTX-e utility vehicle, one of the brand’s first triumphs in the electric power arena.

The Workman GTX electric features a 48-volt brushless AC induction drive along with an easily accessible on-board charger, about which estate manager and director at Royal Norwich Peter Todd says: “Toro led the way with the inception of electric power and continues to do so; it’s hard to believe they are still the only brand with a lithium battery electric utility vehicle! By simply removing the lead acid diesel battery in the GTX-e Workman, Toro made this machine much lighter, it’s the equivalent I’d guess of removing a passenger! When running it over fine turf, that’s an important consideration. The battery is sealed for life, there’s less maintenance and performance is better.”

Royal Norwich is the first club in the country to benefit from even more precise spraying. The efficient flow of spray the new NozzAlert provides when installed on Toro’s Multi Pro sprayers is essential for reducing waste and ensuring application efficacy and ideal spraying conditions.

Peter says: “Royal Norwich has been a Toro customer for many years and the reason being is that it has constantly and consistently delivered the quality we need and the innovation we’re after to continually improve the course.”

“I saw the NozzAlert when it launched at the GIS show last year and talked through the new technology with the design engineers on stand. They explained how operators no longer have to judge spray flow based on visibility when using this new bit of kit; instead, NozzAlert delivers continuous monitoring of the entire spray boom and provides both visual and audible alerts if there are any flow disparities. To be told immediately when there’s a blocked nozzle rather than having to wait until your return trip down the fairway appealed then and there!

“Since using the NozzAlerts we’ve become aware of so many advantages that make the vital job of spraying that much easier. It eliminates the chance of spray misses for example and improves the quality of the application.”

The Greensmaster 1026 pedestrian mower is part of Toro’s redesigned classic Greensmaster 1000 series and is new from the tip of its handle to its driveline and chassis. All that remains the same are the patented DPA cutting units, but even that has a modular build to allow the driveline and chassis to be removable for eased servicing.

The reason for this choice was, says Peter for more efficient cutting of the rectangular tee boxes: “Previously we were using a ride-on for cutting the corners and it was a faff and taking too much time,” he says. “We already use the Flex 2120 on the greens and everyone finds it really easy to use and love the telescoping loop handle. The telescoping handle on both makes light work of adjusting for operator heights and handling more user friendly with the loop shape. It’s easy to see more engineering has been brought in with the redesign.”

This approach to having the latest and most innovative turfcare machinery technology is an attitude that spreads across the whole ethos at Royal Norwich as Pete explains: “We’ve always sought to use the most innovative methods. From our greenkeeping facilities which are mostly green – we used recycled materials to build it and PV solar panels to power it. The golf buggies have the latest GPS mapping so we can zone out areas and measure distance to the pin, which means we don’t need markers on the course, and we have Trackman in the practice range providing accuracy stats for players. We’re always on the look-out for the next big thing to make our jobs more efficient and effective and the game more enjoyable for our members.”

And it’s certainly an approach that’s working with membership up by 1,000 since relocating to the new site in 2019.