EASI DRIVER: GRASS COVERED BUGGY SHELTER ON COURSE FOR YEAR-ROUND PLAY
Chelsea Flower Show award-winning Easigrass garden structure inspires the first of its kind golf buggy shelter installation at a premier resort in the North East of England. Ramside Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa commissioned Easigrass to create a design based on the Easi-Gazebee to provide year-round shelter for its fleet of 36 golf buggies that would also complement and blend in with its grand and green grounds.
Easigrass has extensive experience working in the golfing sector for both commercial and domestic putting green and driving range installations. The Ramside golf shelter design, however, presented a whole new ball game for the leading synthetic grass supplier.
Designed and developed exclusively by Easigrass, the Easi-Gazebee collection is handmade in England using specially patented artificial grass tiles. In contrast to the short-grass, accurate ball and roll speed technology traditionally used in fake grass golf course installation, the Easi-Gazebee is constructed using the luxurious, soft-to-the-touch pile of Easigrass Mayfair.
Since its launch at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2015, the Easi-Gazebee has become a popular year-round outdoor living feature in gardens throughout the UK. Extremely impressed with the Easi-Gazebee featured at the Royal Horticultural Society show, the management at Ramside Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa approached the innovative in-house design team at Easigrass to adapt the concept.
Prior to its construction, the resort had to hire the use of buggies in the peak season to be able to offer players effortless travel around its two 18-hole championship standard golf courses. Once an all-weather buggy road is built on the course, it is hoped there will be a boost for business in the winter months through year-round use of its own fleet.
It took the Easigrass team less than two weeks to build two 16m-long, 5m-wide and 2.5-high structures near the clubhouse, within view of the spa and main car park.
Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club director, Helen Roseberry, said the guarantee and longevity of the product was a selling point, as was the chance to have unique, eye-catching feature to impress clients.
“It has been the last piece of the jigsaw – a real talking point when people arrive to the resort,” Helen explained. “It has the wow effect. It is also practical in terms of keeping the buggies dry from adverse weather conditions.”
The Easigrass installation team also impressed the resort with its professional work ethic and friendly conduct.
“The [team was] unbelievable. They came for a week and worked all hours to get the job finished,” said Helen.
The resort is also considering future construction of two artificial grass tiled rain shelters on both courses to be supplied and installed by Easigrass.
The first artificial grass company to win gold at the RHS Chelsea Flower show, Easigrass specialises in creative bespoke designs and works only with high quality products that meet the highest of industry standards for domestic, sports and commercial use.
As well as supplying and installing a huge range of multi-award winning realistic lawn products and unique structures for the domestic market, the company has more than 30 years experience developing commercial areas and professional sports surfaces.
For golf enthusiasts the Easi-Wentworth product line is specifically designed to mirror the look and feel of a perfect golfing green. The Easigrass synthetic putting green has an exceptionally low texturised finish to accurately simulate roll and ball speed.
Fake grass is used in a variety of applications, thanks to its unique versatility and high-end technical construction. It can be installed in low light areas, balconies, roof terraces and courtyards, providing a low maintenance, year-round, non-slip surface outdoor, indoor, sun or shade.
