Cowdray Golf Club invests in Salsco

Time Saving Boost from Salsco Roller

As a Course Manager, the one resource you never have enough of is time. So, a machine that gives it back to you every time you use it is a valuable asset. That’s why Jonathan Smith, who fulfils the role at the prestigious Cowdray Golf Club in West Sussex, rates the Salsco roller he bought from Lister Wilder so highly.

With a substantial £1m investment from the Estate fueling the club’s claim for recognition as one of the UK’s premier courses, the Salsco has an increasingly important role to play in fine tuning the excellent greens on a day-to-day basis.

The club made the decision to buy the roller after a rigorous extended demo organised by Lister Wilder’s Area Sales Manager David Gray. “Greens ironing plays such an important part in ensuring that people’s experience of their visit is as good as it can be,” says Jonathan. “Previously, we had a much smaller greens iron, and while it did a fair job, it used to take us about four hours to get round where the Salsco can do it to a high standard in just two hours 20 minutes.

He added: “Shotgun starts {where groups of players start their rounds at the same time from different holes} are a particularly big challenge for us because they give us limited time to get the greens prepared. The Salsco makes a big difference in that it allows us to get out there and produce great quality greens in restricted time. Previously, I would have had two guys out there first thing bunker raking but now I can have one out there rolling the greens and another raking the bunkers. The time saving is huge.”

Jonathan also likes the flexibility the Salsco gives him to deal with challenges. “If the weather is particularly hot we tend to prefer to roll rather than cut because we believe it gives the greens the best chance and gives our players the best performance,” he says.

He adds: “The other beauty of it is that if I am doing any type of renovation work I will rotovate an area, seed it and then roll because it is so effective for consolidation. It is powerful, doesn’t get stuck and takes away a lot of treading down.

Jonathan likes the fact that he can when the need arises increase the weight by adding water to the individual rolls, so increasing the psi from 7.0 to 9.2. “That has been particularly useful when we are Verti-Draining and Pro-Coring during our maintenance week” he continues. “Within a few days you would never know the work had taken place.”

Jonathan and his team have played a key role in the upgrading of the course in an intensive one-year programme in conjunction with golf course architect Will Swan from Swan Golf Designs and contractors Profusion. The work included the re-design and construction of 45 bunkers, addition of permanent pathways and the re-design and build of a Par 3 course.

The investment in the 18-hole championship course near Midhurst comes in the wake of a particularly successful period during which the club produced growth over each of the past five years. Over that time membership climbed to 750, with a further 110 on the waiting list.

The substantial boost to the golf course lifts its status not just within the golfing world but within the Cowdray Estate itself, where it exists alongside the famous Cowdray Park Polo Club as well as prolific farming, forestry and other interests.

Tim Allen, Cowdray’s Director of Golf, is very proud of what has been achieved: “An incredible amount of hard work has gone into the project that has been over two-an-a-half years in the making,” he says. “The whole team have been fantastic, and we all hope that members and all golfers enjoy the improvements for many years to come.”