Added: 19th August 2014
The Turfdry team are currently enjoying the scenic surrounds of The Rayleigh Club, Essex, where they have begun work on their largest and most ambitious drainage project yet: a comprehensive installation of the Turfdry Drainage System using Hydraway Sportsdrain on all 18 fairways of the championship standard South Course.
This work comes following an intense period of consultation with the club’s owner, who is set on making The Rayleigh Club the destination for golf in Essex. Whilst the picturesque scenery, modern clubhouse and challenging holes go some way to achieving this goal, the course has been blighted in recent winters by severe waterlogging problems that have caused course closures for up to three months of the year. Indeed, Turfdry MD Melvyn Taylor – who has had considerable experience in the 20 years of Turfdry operations, and plenty of golf experience even before that – described it as one of the the wettest courses he had ever seen.
With the scale of the task at hand so significant, Turfdry’s design process was aided not only by a state of the art satellite survey of the site, but also through detailed discussions with the club’s management to capitalise on their extensive experience of the course and its associated waterlogging problems. As a result, the Turfdry Drainage System design utilises Hydraway Sportsdrain at 4 or 5 metre centres across the whole course, thereby balancing optimum technical efficiency with cost effectiveness.
To take on such a demanding job, and to balance the company’s other commitments until the end of the year, Turfdry’s staff numbers have swelled to an all-time high and significant investment has been made in specialist new machinery and equipment. The growing demand for the Turfdry Drainage System and Hydraway Sportsdrain is such that further expansion into 2015, and beyond, is inevitable.
Since beginning work at The Rayleigh Club in mid-July, the Turfdry team has completed work on nine fairways, and are well underway on their tenth – much to the delight of the golfers. Despite understandable disappointment at some loss of play during the works, temporary closures have been limited generally to one hole and occasionally two, and the members’ response to the works has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have taken a break from their rounds to express their pleasant surprise at the level of sophistication evident in Turfdry’s equipment, operation and considered design - not to mention the speed and tidiness of their work. Holes are immediately returned to play following completion of the drainage installation.
Whilst there is a great deal of work yet to complete – including the construction of several new and interesting water features, and drainage installation for the remaining fairways – Turfdry is very pleased with the progress thus far, and excited at the prospect of transforming The Rayleigh Club into a year-round destination for quality golf.
We look forward to keeping you up to date with the progress of all our current projects in the news section.
