Club reports back on robotic mowing
Thonock Park in Lincolnshire has been using five Toro’s Turf Pro autonomous mowers for six months.
Thonock Park Course Manager Rob Acheson, centre, with Mason Sleight, left, and Glen Sawyer both from Toro dealer Russells Groundcare.
The Turf Pro 500 mowers are being used to cut both fairways and rough of 18 of the club’s 36 holes and General Manager Benjamin Hatch feeds back: “We are exceptionally pleased with their quality of cut and the definition between fairway and rough grasses.”
Course Manager Rob Acheson controls all five mowers through the Smart App. This provides a big advantage in getting course maintenance ahead of play. All fairway mowing can be completed before the course opens, supported by “the almost non-existent noise levels” says Benjamin.
With these machines the club has been able to redefine the job requirements of the team and can guarantee all-year round value.
“Very importantly, these mowers have enabled us to reassign some of our skilled greenkeeping team to other tasks on the course that require more specialist work,” Benjamin says. “During the wetter months, we expect to keep using these mowers, when ordinarily we would struggle to use the much heavier diesel machines. It’s been a very positive investment for us and one we believe we will continue to benefit from year after year.”
Customise settings at your fingertips – working perimeters, no-go zones, mowing pattern, cutting height and transport paths.
Wireless monitoring and control – start or stop your machines at anytime from anywhere, receive alerts, create schedules, and automate certain processes.
GPS-RTK navigation provides ultra-precise navigation – no boundary wires required.
The all-electric, autonomous mower is self-charging and automatically returns to its charging station.
Toro Turf Pro specialist training
Lee Rowbotham, GeoLink and Digital Specialist, Reesink UK
Customers like Thonock Park who invest in Toro’s autonomous mowing can expect two comprehensive training sessions post-install from Lee Rowbotham, GeoLink and Digital Specialist at Reesink UK.
Lee spearheads the introduction of this new technology and works closely with our dealers and sales team providing support and training on these product lines.
Thonock Park’s local dealer Russells Groundscare also joined the training. Lee explains the process: “We were there at the point of delivery to install the chargers and base station. The mowers are blind out of the box, so training involves telling them everything they need to know, like where the charging station is, the route to the fairways, what the safe areas, and not safe areas are. And of course, for the team to understand the operation and the terminology involved.”
Operation is something Lee likens to how irrigation sprinklers are controlled. “They are controlled individually, one at a time, and can be set up in advance,” he says. “Just like you can set a sprinkler to come on at 5am, you can set the Turf Pros to start mowing at 10pm once everyone has gone home if you wish.”
After the training Mark Willerton, Groundcare Sales Manager at Russells fed back to us: “We see autonomous mowers as an important part of our future business, it’s something we’re investing heavily in with dedicated specialist staff and demonstration machines.
“Working alongside Thonock Park and Reesink to understand this next generation of mowing and how to maximise the potential and efficiency of the mowers has been a great learning experience. We look forward to continuing working with the team at Thonock Park to ensure they always have the best turfcare options available.”
The backup and support doesn’t stop there. Lee and his team will be offering additional training at a new training school at Reesink’s head office in St Neots in 2026. This will cover in detail servicing of these new machines.