The Kingfisher Country Estate, Northern Ireland, has signed a five-year deal for a comprehensive 25-machine Toro fleet in what is Keys Brothers’ biggest agreement since becoming a Toro dealer.
Set on 220 acres of parkland 20 minutes from Belfast, the only David Feherty/David Jones designed golf course in Ireland offers 18 holes over 7,000 yards of Championship USGA specification greens, tees and challenging fairways and is looked after by head greenkeeper Michael Loughran and his team of 12.
“We’ve had lease deals with Toro before but usually for six or seven key pieces of machinery; this is the first time we’ve gone all-in on a full fleet,” says Michael.

Major upgrade
So why now? “A couple of reasons,” Michael explains. “The Estate has recently been given the go ahead on a significant upgrade to the resort and it was important the course kept up with site improvements. There will be major developments on bunkers, a lot of tree work and consistently maintaining the quality of the course is a big job as it’s fully playable year round.”
And “this was our first time working with Keys Brothers since the change in dealership and the support has been outstanding”, Michael adds. ”I fired over questions and issues and got solutions every time. This indication of the level of service and support we’d get was reassuring and sealed the deal especially as we were going with a full maintenance package too.”
Also, Toro distributor Reesink Turfcare’s national accounts manager David Timms visited the venue twice “and we felt we had direct access to and the full support” of both.
The deal includes pedestrian and riding mowers for all areas, five Workman utility vehicles, the ProPass topdresser, two ProForce blowers, the new TransPro for transporting the club’s existing ProCore 648 aerator, plus the installation of Toro’s myTurf Pro to optimise fleet operation.

Standout machines
“Keys Brothers advised us to switch out the Reelmaster 5610-D for the ‘3575-D’ for the fairways. A simple tweak but suits the site much better,” Michael reports. “Site topography doesn’t have great elevation and we didn’t need all that power but a lighter footprint and a mower using less fuel – the ‘3575’ delivers both.”
The four Greensmaster 1021 pedestrian mowers are easy to demonstrate and use, he adds “especially helpful when increasing staffing on projects as it takes just half a green to master these machines.”
Andy Keys, Keys Brothers company director, says: “While we believe this to be one of the biggest golf deals in Northern Ireland in 2024, the issues and requirements for Michael and the team were like many: they knew there were machinery tweaks they could make to address specific issues and be more efficient. This is applicable whether you’re buying one machine or a fleet.”
To maintenance too “is testament to the team we’ve built, which has doubled in size since last year, such is the level of business we’re doing.”
www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk