Cranham is reputed to be the first 18-hole golf course in the UK to utilise autonomous mowing across all of its fairways and first-cut rough – and the Essex venue is now reaping the benefits.
It was back in May 2023 that Cranham, a public course, adopted the technology to maintain the vast bulk of its 350,000m2, par-67 layout.
With its eye-catching, island-green closing hole, Cranham has developed a glowing reputation for the quality of its course, something managing director Barney Cameron says is directly related to the club’s high-tech turfcare.
“We’re constantly investing into grounds maintenance,” he said. “Ultimately, the condition of the course is what’s going to keep players happy and keep them coming back over the long term.
“As a public course, there is no resting on our laurels. We’re more vulnerable to rising costs than a member-only golf club that tends to have both fixed and diversified revenue streams.
“We quickly realised that we needed to find ways to minimise future cost increases without sacrificing our reputation for the quality of the course.”
Barney found his greenkeeping team were too stretched to be able to deliver the standards they were capable of, and he needed a solution.
“Our guys are excellent, a real asset to the business, but we realised that we were not able to utilise their expertise to the fullest,” he explained.
“By the time they’d finished mowing the fairways and rough, there was limited time left for managing bunkers, repairing divots, green management and improving drainage.
“It was like owning a sports car but mostly using it for the run to the supermarket rather than driving it at its fullest potential on a racetrack.”
Autonomous mowing: How autonomous mowers work at Cranham – could they do the same for your club?
Cranham turned to automation as a means to alleviating the workload on the greenkeeping team, affording them time to tend to the more skilled work and leaving machines to do the lion’s share of the cutting.
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The club undertook a two-week trial with two ECHO robots, which mowed the fairways 24 hours a day. The impact on the course, and on the team, was significant.
“We just couldn’t believe the result,” said Barney. “We walked the course after only a couple of days and the finish was incredible.
“Given the huge area being cut, I was expecting to find at least a few areas missed or an uneven cut on slopes. I really thought we would need to tune the robot’s performance over a number of weeks, but it was near-perfect from the start.”
It was not just the staff who were impressed, as players also noticed a difference in the playing conditions, which showed a marked improvement thanks to both the mowers and the ability of the greenkeeping team to focus on more targeted work.
“What really took me by surprise was the secondary benefit that the robots have given us,” Barney explained.
“Last year, for the first time in a long time, we had the capacity to really focus on drainage, bunker maintenance and proper management of our hedgerows. Customers have noticed the difference and commented on the improvement.
“We used to have to sub-contract out this kind of work, but now we have the time to do it ourselves and, quite frankly, we do a better job of it. I feel that our greenkeepers are even more engaged these days too.
“They’ve finally got the time to focus on what they’re best at and I can’t help but feel that they’re going home a little more satisfied with their work than they were before.”
This article appears in Your Course, the twice-yearly publication from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Your Course invites golfers to gain a deeper appreciation of what preparing and maintaining a golf course really involves. Head to www.bigga.org.uk to find out more.
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