Maintaining top-tier playing conditions at North London’s Stanmore Golf Club is a constant balancing act – particularly with the ever-changing challenges posed by the climate.
After 31 years at the club, Course Manager Barry Neville know what it takes to keep the course in shape, which begins with the right machinery to deliver both efficiency and outstanding results.
With a new SP100 from GKB Machines, the team now have a robust, versatile topdressing solution to support ongoing course renovation and drainage works.
Set on challenging London clay, the course — originally an inland links — has evolved into a mature parkland layout, now grappling like most with more prolonged periods of rainfall and the need for drainage improvements. Together with seeking to improve efficiency of routine topdressing, Barry explains that this multi-year programme drove the demand for a new, reliable solution.
“Our previous dresser had served us well for close to two decades so the process of finding its replacement wasn’t taken lightly. We looked at a good few options, but the GKB Sandspreader really stood out. Seeing it at BTME 2025 then again at the Doe Show, the build quality was apparent immediately” he says.
“Not only could you tell the steel construction was robust, we also liked the fact the Sandspreader uses hydraulic controls rather than electric. A lot of modern kit is becoming more complex which is fine when it works, but in the real world with the weather and conditions in which we operate, things eventually go wrong” Barry says.
The SP100 was delivered by dealers Ernest Doe in June 2025 once the machine had been fully equipped to meet the club’s unique requirements. “Filling the trenches after the installation of the new drainage has been a labour-intensive task, with a lot of barrowing, tipping and backfilling by hand.
This is manageable on greens but for fairways and larger areas, it just wasn’t efficient” he explains. “The ability to swap out the spinning discs of the SP100 for a cross conveyor has proved to be a gamechanger.”
Together with transforming the task of topping up trenches, the SP100 has also been impressing with the routine topdressing around the course. “We’ve dressed the greens twice with it and it’s gone faultlessly. If we get out first thing in the morning, the job is done by 9:00am and within a couple of hours the light dressing is brushed in so the golfers hardly even notice.”
“In addition, we’ve been using the conveyor system to top up bunkers which is already presenting a major time saving.”
Looking ahead, Barry foresees the versatility of the Sandspreader will pay dividends across the course. “Together with routine topdressing every couple of weeks, we’ll be looking to put 100 tonnes of material through it during our maintenance week in August. With the hopper slightly larger than our previous machine, we also have the potential to dress our fairways in the future. It’s a futureproofed purchase.”
