KUBOTA SWINGS INTO ACTION AT WIMBLEDON PARK GOLF CLUB

Back to articles list

The man faced with the challenge of maintaining the course at Wimbledon Park Golf Club in the heart of SW19 is course manager David Langheim, one of just 80 Master Greenkeepers in the world.

Since joining the club in 2008, David and his team of nine greenkeepers have worked towards keeping the tees, greens, fairways and bunkers in top playing condition whilst navigating around the various restrictions in place to help protect the designated conservation area.

The parkland course in London, which has over 800 members, is situated next to the famous All England Lawn Tennis Club. To help with the rigorous daily maintenance of the course, David was looking to add a new compact tractor to his machinery fleet.

He wanted a powerful and reliable machine that could maximise productivity levels and help streamline workload. After assessing the market, David made the decision to purchase Kubota’s high performance L5040 compact tractor to the club’s current fleet of groundcare machines from his local dealer – Lister Wilder.

David said: “The main reason we bought the tractor is Kubota’s reputation for reliability. Having used many Kubotas at my previous club, Foxhills in Chertsey, I knew that the machine would live up to the challenge. The performance and comfort of the L5040 simply means that we can work from dusk till dawn without any issues.”

Adding to David and his team’s responsibilities is the club’s involvement in Wimbledon’s world-renowned tennis tournament that takes place just across the road. Serving as the main car park, hospitality area and base for emergency services for the annual event, the golf course plays a significant role in the management of this major sporting event.

With 2,500 vehicles and 45,000 people attending each day of the two-week competition, the course requires major repairs in the weeks following the tournament. This year, like all those prior, a large team of contractors were set the task of stripping and relaying approximately 10,000m2 of turf, before David and his team went to work to put the first-class finish on the course.

David continued: “When working on a job as big as this, with such tight time-constraints, having a machine this versatile means that we save a lot of time when we’re out on the course. It also means that we can put the Kubota tractor to good use all year round for seeding and aeration.

“With the amount of damage caused each year, it’s easy to see how rapidly the course could change over time, so to have a machine like L5040 that we can rely on allows us to meet the high standard we set for ourselves in a short space of time.

Due to his expert status, David often shares his expert knowledge with the wider golfing community, presenting at BTME, carrying out workshops, and representing Wimbledon Park at major competitions.

David concluded: “Golf is not just a sport, it’s an experience, the views and vistas of each course make the game what it is, which is why it’s important to us that Wimbledon Park is constantly being improved. I’m honoured to have been involved with The Open, Wentworth PGA and the Ryder Cup. I am always very proud to represent Wimbledon Park and look forward to doing so at the Ryder Cup once again in 2018.”

You may also like

Address

Dormer Road Thame
Oxfordshire OX9 3UN

Telephone: 01844 268000
Fax: 08702 429729