The John Deere Invitational has celebrated the best of the golf and sports turf industry, bringing together an exclusive group of greenskeepers, course superintendents and John Deere dealers from across Australia and New Zealand for two days of learning, networking and golf at the prestigious Royal Canberra Golf Club.

“This event brings together key customers and dealers from across the region to talk about golf and sports turf management, which is a unique industry, and to hear what’s on their minds and talk about what John Deere is doing in the future,” says John Deere Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, Luke Chandler.

“Our GPS-spraying technologies that we’ve leveraged from our agriculture business are game-changing for this sector, but we also know things like electrification, automation, and sustainability are important for golf clubs and sports turf, and we’re excited to be bringing some of those technologies to this space as well. And we’re lucky enough to be at Royal Canberra which has gone through a huge transformation in the last few years.”

For host superintendent Ryan Stores, the John Deere Invitational was a highlight and a chance to present the course which has recently undergone an extensive course renovation, including changing grass species on the fairway back to couchgrass.

“It’s been marked on our calendar as the key event of our season,” says Stores. “Just having your peers coming and looking at the course is probably the highlight of what we do because they understand all the effort that goes into these things, at a deep level. We basically blew the golf course up over the last two years, reconstructed all the bunkers, fairways, tees, greens surrounds, and then put it all back together.”

Royal Canberra and John Deere have a close working relationship with Stores saying that John Deere equipment has assisted significantly in the recent restoration works and presenting the new-look surfaces going forward

“I’d say the key component were the John Deere sprayers,” says Stores. “Being GPS, we can be very, very accurate with what we’re trying to achieve. We don’t have to worry about overlap or misapplication. It all has to be perfect. Think about greens cut at three millimetres. If you’re one millimetre out it can be almost catastrophic, so everything has to be on point.

“The other key part of being in a John Deere partnership is the support I get from my local branch. If anything was ever a problem, or if I ran into a parts issue or a machine wasn’t performing the way I was hoping, I was able to just pick up the phone, and these guys would send a tech out or talk me through something on the phone.”

John Deere Director of Sales, Emma Ford, says the Invitational was a unique event in that in brought together the breadth of the industry. “This is such a great opportunity for networking and education, and it’s delivered by three partners – John Deere, our dealer network and our dealer partners,” Ms Ford said. “The event wouldn’t be possible without Rainbird, Envu and Fieldquip and together in symphony it’s about a holistic solution for our golf partners.”

 

Photos (from top down): About 50 people attended the John Deere Invitational at Royal Canberra Golf Club; John Deere Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Luke Chandler, Royal Canberra Golf Club Course Superintendent Ryan Stores and John Deere Director of Sales Emma Ford; Royal Canberra Golf Club’s John Deere fairway units in action up the 18th.