Quality - and we know it!

Overlooking the beautiful Abberley and Woodbury Hills of Worcestershire, Ombersley Golf Club was opened in September 1991 and is a renowned, 18 hole golf course. Situated on 130 acres of self- draining, undulating ground, Ombersley is a very busy course all year round and operates mainly on a ‘pay-and-play’ basis.

Course Manager, Andrew Halfpenny has been working on this site for 38 years, way before when the grounds were a farming enterprise. He then helped when building the course commenced in 1989 and so you could say he knows a thing or two about the foibles and vagaries of the course that challenge some of even the best golfers.

“With so many visitors to our golf course, we are very focussed on quality of presentation,” commented Andrew. “With good free draining land we have built our reputation on year-round capabilities regardless of the weather. “Quality of finish is about quality of input and we know it! “We have a team of five experienced green-keepers and a mechanic full time and add a couple of part-timers when things get really busy.”

Since day one, Ombersley has been running a complete range of John Deere greens and fairway mowers including two 2500As a 2500A Hybrid, a 2653A, 8800 and 8700, a 3245C, two small tractors - 4700 and 4500, plus two 4x2 Gators. They have just taken delivery of a new 8700A, but kept their old one just as a back-up.

Perfect finish

“I already mentioned about quality,” said Andrew. “Our John Deere machines reflect exactly that policy. They not only leave a perfect finish but they are so very reliable, day-in, day-out. We have a John Deere 2500A Greens mower that we bought in 1999, it now has 9600hrs on the clock and it performs just like it did when it was first delivered. It’s the same thing with reliability on all our green and yellow machines. We don’t get many breakdowns! Local John Deere Turfcare dealer Tallis Amos Group (TAG) also regularly offer operator clinics so we can be sure we get the best out of our machinery. That is priceless!”

Ombersley originally purchased their John Deere’s from Park and Grounds Machinery, a specialist turf-care company which is now part of the Tallis Amos Group, which covers territory throughout the West Midlands and into West Wales. Specialist teams of sales, service and parts personnel are responsible for Golf Course, Commercial and Homeowner machinery and are considered the best in their industry.

“Having the back-up of TAG close-by has been an absolute feather in the cap,” added Andrew. “I find it hard to put it into words, but they have an amazing after-sales back-up service that other companies just don’t have. They will always go the extra mile when we need it and the Parts team are just so efficient and helpful. Couple that kind of service with the latest John Deere 8700A which is leaps and bounds above anything else on the market and you have a recipe for success. Fuel consumption on this new machine means we get 18 fairways cut per day and use less than 40 litres of fuel. The old model would probably use about 70 litres. for the same task, but it would only manage 12 fairways each day. The new Q5 cutting units are an even greater improvement on the older model, so we are winners all round.” concluded Andrew.

Best Green-keepers on earth choose John Deere
Andrew Halfpenny