Member Article

Engineering firm tees off with golf club

An engineering company is expanding its growing portfolio after being taken on by a golf club to maintain its greens, tees and fairways.

C & A Pumps and Engineering has been contracted to manage the irrigation system at Seaton Carew Golf Club which ensures the course is in top condition for members and visitors.

The partnership came about after the company was called out on an unrelated electrical emergency which it was able to resolve quickly and cost effectively.

And because so few companies in the region have the expertise to manage the complex irrigation system, C & A Pumps is now an approved Toro contractor – one of the main manufacturers of irrigation systems in the UK – and has also won work with Wynyard and Rockliffe Hall golf clubs.

Alan Roberts, C & A Pumps’ Managing Director, said: “For all we had the expertise to do so, we had never really thought about pursuing this particular market and it was really by chance that the initial work at Seaton Carew came about.

“They were keen to work with someone locally who could maintain their irrigation system so if anything did go wrong it could be resolved quickly and efficiently.

“And because so few companies in the region offer this service, we have quickly secured other work on the back of it.”

The irrigation system at Seaton Carew was installed in the 1970s but in recent years has been improved and is now run using the golf club’s own water borehole, which was installed in 2007.

It is sensor controlled so the sprinklers switch on when the course needs hydrating to ensure the 23 holes stay in the best possible condition all year round.

Club groundsman Tony Cartwright said: “We’d used a few different companies in the past but none of them were local so as well as the cost of the job and the time it would take to get them on site, we also had travelling and even overnight expenses to pay.

“The course is built on sand so having the irrigation system working properly is vital to the upkeep of it.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .