Outfield robots at High Legh

Automated Managed Services (AMS) have announced the recent install of robot technology at High Legh Park Golf Club’s driving range. The Club was designed by former Ryder Cup captain Mark James and was first opened in 1998. It currently boasts two courses, practice areas, a floodlit driving range and an American Golf Academy.

The facility has seen a major transformation since it was purchased back in 2011 by Andrew Vaughan, after previously going into receivership. With Andrew’s investment and management the club has been transformed into one of Cheshire’s premier golf venues.

To further enhance the productivity and development of the golf facility, automation was introduced to the driving range. The robots automate the chores of outfield maintenance such as grass management, ball collecting, ball washing, ball handling and transportation to the dispenser.

“With about ten to fifteen thousand balls a day being hit out onto the outfield, the man hours in getting those balls in were quite prohibitive. Usually taking several hours per day to get balls in, clean them and put them back into the ball dispenser. Also over the winter we’ve been going out with heavy machinery churning up the outfield and finding a lot of balls were being mechanically plugged by the equipment, which was causing the outfield to look a right mess,” said Andrew Vaughan, owner at High Legh Park Golf Club

“It’s only been in nearly week now, but the signs are looking really good, it’s been picking up from all the areas of the outfield. We have quite a large outfield with some quite bumpy areas, so I was very sceptical as to whether the machines could actually cope with that. However so far they have perfectly, also the added benefit of the system putting the balls back into the ball dispenser and cleaning them, it’s just a perfect solution.”

The main benefits of the robots are that it can frees up personnel to perform other tasks and requires minimal human intervention of just ten minutes cleaning every day. The BigMow robot, finely cuts the blades of grass using a unique mulching technique. This allows the grass to easily decompose into the soil, creating a healthier greener outfield.

The BallPicker, which handles the ball collection and drops them into ball to the wash system after collection. The wash system washes and transports the balls back to the dispenser ready for use. This gives the driving range a constant ball supply.