Wiedenmann Super 500 in action at High Post Golf Club
Tom Freeman, Course Manager at High Post Golf Club in Salisbury, is used to working to high standards. Fortunately for Tom, achieving these standards – year-in, year-out – has been made much easier by investing in a high-quality collection of Wiedenmann machinery.
Having held a long association with the brand, Tom bought a Wiedenmann GXi8 Terra Spike for the chalk downland course in 2018, followed by a Terra Rake in 2020. Adding a Super 500 in the Spring of 2022 capped off a versatile and high-performing set, all supplied by T H WHITE Groundcare’s Stuart Fry, which has helped to improve the management and maintenance of this year-round course no end. ‘We intially ran a Verti-Drain but wanted to achieve a faster and smoother result. The Terra Spike’s deep aeration was a real gamechanger’, says Tom. ‘It always leaves a smooth surface, making a big step forward in Organic Matter (OM) control – giving us the ability to refine our fine turf areas. We take it out for three main maintenance weeks per year, getting through some pretty intense activity – having the ability to rotate different tine depths and widths helps to achieve the desired effect. After that, it sees action once a month from Autumn until Spring.’
Wiedenmann GXi8 Terra Spike
‘Thanks to its fast and smooth operation, we also use it with a needle tine on through the Summer season, when the calendar allows. If OM levels increase, they can bring poor drainage and disease, creating softer surfaces that make for poor play. The GXi8 has been one of the main contributing factors that have helped us improve our playing surfaces during my tenure,’ Tom explains.
‘When it comes to long rough, High Post has some of the most biodiverse areas I’ve seen, allowing us to effectively frame the golf course,’ he continues. ‘Creating this definition is not only important from a visual point-of-view, it has a massive role both in how the course plays, as well as the overall ecology of the site.
Wiedenmann Terra Rake
The Super 500 high tipping
The Super 500 and Terra Rake work in tandem – the Terra Rake is dragged over multiple surfaces, typically the deep ecological rough areas, with the aim of refining the sward and promoting the fine grasses and wildflower. We follow through with the Super 500 to refine the rough even more – cutting and collecting to remove as much of the material as we can, which reduces the amount of nutrition added back to the soil. This creates an environment better suited for fine grasses and wildflower species to thrive, which in-turn, also keeps the rough thin and playable.’ Tom adds. ‘We aim to use this combination multiple times throughout the season, with the results clearly paying off each year’.
Tom has certainly enjoyed a wide variety of experiences over his 24 year career – starting out as an apprentice at Bowood Golf and Country Club in 2000 (where he met our very own Stuart Fry!) He then worked at the Manor House Golf Club in Castle Combe, before moving on to the Ohio State intern programme, plus a spell in Australia for New South Wales Golf Club. Returning to the UK, he joined the team at Kingsdown Golf Club as Deputy Course Manager before being appointed as Course Manager at High Post in 2017.
‘Our Wiedenmann machines are some of the most important bits of kit in the shed – they allow us to deliver an all-round journey of health and improvement for our fine surfaces and ecological roughs. I simply wouldn’t consider another make. We upgrade our cultural machines in 7–10-year cycles, so we’ll look to the Wiedenmann brand again when it’s next time to re-stock,’ concludes Tom.
The versatility of the Super 500 would certainly seem to back this up – whether sweeping turf, collecting leaves, scarifying or flail mowing. Durable, simple to operate, cost-effective, with options for high-level and low-level dumping controlled remotely from the cab – the Super 500 has certainly maintained a high bar for High Post Golf Club.
Contact Stuart Fry at the T H WHITE Groundcare team on 07774 212926 for more info on Wiedenmann’s range of turfcare machinery.
