ICL products and Agrovista service deliver at The West Lancashire Golf Club
Stuart Hogg, Course Manager at The West Lancashire Golf Club, believes that Accredited Supplier, ICL’s products and Agrovista Amenity’s service help to keep course standards impeccably high.
Founded in 1873, The West Lancashire Golf Club in Liverpool is one of the 9 oldest clubs in England. It is currently ranked 28th in Golf World Top 100 in England; 49th in Golf World Top 100 Links GB & Ireland; and 23rd in National Club Golfer Top 100.
The West Lancashire has also recently been selected by The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) as one of four renowned golf clubs to stage final qualifying for The Open.
Stuart, who has been at the club since 2015 and manages a team of seven staff members, underlined the importance of keeping up standards at such a highly regarded club.
“It certainly puts pressure on us to deliver,” he admitted. “As a business, we have grown massively, and so has the reputation. We have to keep standards high and constantly need to deliver high-end surfaces and to do that we need to rely on proven, quality products. For example, when we first started using ICL we quickly realised that the products being developed and launched matched where I wanted to go, and they were making it easier to achieve our goals.”
Stuart sources all his ICL products through Agrovista Amenity – an ICL distributor, and he has recently reported excellent results from Qualibra wetting agent and Sportsmaster WSF SMX 20-0-0 – a beneficial nitrogen source in the form of ammonium sulphate coupled with SMX – an effective and sustainable seaweed concentrate.
Commenting on his use of Qualibra, Stuart said:
“We’re now using Qualibra across the whole course because over recent years we’ve developed a huge amount of trust in the product. The standards and expectations here are so high that I need to be using market-leading products. I like the fact that it's widely tank-mixable with other products and I can buy it in bulk, ensuring we keep within budget."
Stuart mentions that West Lancashire Golf Club incorporate WSF SMX 20.0.0 into their turf management program after some trial work with ICL. Praising the product for being environmentally friendly and aligned with traditional greenkeeping practices. The product's key benefits include delivering sufficient nutrition to the turf and helping mitigate stresses. This is particularly important for their golf course, which seems to experience high levels of stress.
On SMX, Stuart said:
“After some trial work with ICL we started to incorporate WSF SMX 20.0.0 into our programme and it has been a great product. I like the makeup of it because it is environmentally friendly, and it is in line with traditional greenkeeping."
As well as being impressed with the products, Stuart underlined the importance of working with both the manufacturer and distributor.
“Having two of the industry’s biggest companies working in partnership together helps our golf course – that’s for sure. There is absolutely no reason to move away from ICL and Agrovista when everything works incredibly well for us.”