Chris Haspell, Course Manager at the Castle Stuart Golf Club in Inverness, has revealed that his team have seen a number of benefits since signing-up to Turf Rewards.

Turf Rewards from ICL and Syngenta is a loyalty scheme for golf, sport and amenity turf managers and provides the chance to earn points from purchases and convert them into a range of valuable agronomic or educational items. Launched in 2014, the scheme has gone from strength to strength with a wide variety of products added on a regular basis.

There is an extensive range of items on offer including educational vouchers, agronomy tools, ICL spreaders, iPads and work wear vouchers. New rewards are added each year and new to the scheme in 2016 included  the GoPro HERO 4 Camcorder, the popular Greenstester and the DJI Phantom 3 Standard Drone – something which Chris believes plays a key role in his day-to-day maintenance of the course. The flying quadcopter possesses a built-in camera which can capture 2.7K-resolution video and Chris relies on it as his third eye.

“We recently claimed the drone to gather some footage in order to prepare for the Scottish Open,” he says. “I think the drone is an excellent tool for viewing your course from above. We use it to spot disease such as fairy ring and dry patch and it’s amazing what you can actually see from above rather than at eye level.

“It’s good to map out the course and plan any changes or drainage work. The images and videos are also great to keep a record in case we need to revert back to any original features of the course.”

Not only does Turf Rewards benefit the Turf Manager but it is of advantage to the rest of the team, the turf, and the organisation they work for. It can provide a great opportunity to enhance education, improve operations and boost team morale. It is also a fantastic way to maximise budgets with every purchase as Chris explains.

“We can see the benefit of the tools and education on offer and if we can save spending our budget on these items it then allows us to spend money elsewhere on the golf course. I also think it’s a fantastic way for clubs to access certain tools and training when they don’t have the budget to do so.”

So far, as well as the drone, Chris and his team have claimed iPads which the team use to control the course’s irrigation system, ICL’s market leading spreader to deliver seed and fertilizer and a range of educational vouchers.

Chris also highlighted the importance of education in greenkeeping after he revealed what was next on his Turf Rewards wish list.

“We plan to use our current points for more education vouchers as it’s a good way of stretching our budget to allow more staff to attend the education programme at BTME,” he said.

For more information on Turf Rewards visit www.turfrewards.com