The search is on to recognise the UK's professional sprayer operators in the sports turf, amenity and landscape management industries.
The Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year (ASOOTY) Awards highlight best practice and experience in the challenging role of ensuring accurate application on all amenity surfaces.
The Amenity Forum competition, supported by ICL and Syngenta, seeks to share guidance and advice that will raise the standards of spray application across the amenity industry.
The ASOOTY Awards seeks entries from all sprayer operators across the amenity industry, including golf and sports turf, professional landscape management, industrial applications and lawncare professionals.
The Awards’ finalists will be announced at the Amenity Forum Conference in October, with the overall winner presented at the prestigious BIGGA Awards ceremony at BTME in January 2027.
Amenity businesses and sports turf managers are urged to actively encourage their sprayer operators to enter the awards this year.
All ASOOTY applicants will also be entered into a competition to win one of five Syngenta Sprayer Calibration & Application Kits.
Along with assessing operators’ skills of spray application and use of products, the ASOOTY judging panel also now incorporate the importance of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to any issues involving turf and landscape maintenance.
Announcing the opening of the ASOOTY 2026 Awards, Amenity Forum Chairman, Ian Graham, highlighted: “This competition seeks to highlight the remarkable talent that exists within our sector, and I encourage as many spray operators as possible to engage with the process.
“Our industry has many highly skilled spray operators working within it, using a diverse range of products accurately applied through a huge range of complex application equipment. Past winners have ably demonstrated the professional approach to meeting these challenges.”
Syngenta Technical Manager, Pete May, added: “The skills of sprayer operators to make efficient, effective and above all safe applications is essential for the future sustainability of the amenity and turf care industry.
“The ASOOTY awards are a welcome way to recognise and reward the leading individuals and to learn from their experience.”
Last year’s winner, Ryan Gall, spray tech at Loch Lomond in Scotland, was praised by the ASOOTY judges for his deep understanding of the principles of sprayer operation, along with how that can be put into practice each day while spraying.
Notable for his success was the attention to preparation and pre-emptive actions even before he starts spraying. Ryan understood the objective of each application, and how he could use his skills to fine tune techniques to ensure the maximum product would reach the desired target, as well as protecting the surrounding environment.
While his new John Deere sprayer is fully automated, he demonstrated the importance of understanding the fundamentals of nozzle selection and operation to fully exploit the capabilities of the technology and get the best results from every application.
ICL Landscape & Industrial Business Manager, Lewis Blois, added: “We are delighted to support such an important cross-sector industry initiative, with a continued commitment to raise standards and improve results.
“Importantly it provides a unique and vitally important resource for all involved in spray application across the amenity sector,” he points out.
The entry process aims to test sprayer operators' broader knowledge of issues and solutions faced across the amenity sector through an initial on-line question form, including questions to assess an individual’s experience and approach to dealing with challenges.
It’s seeking to find operators that can make those important proactive decisions with every application
Entries to the ASOOTY Awards 2026 closes on Friday 25 September.
