GOLF


I was in the workshop, and my tools were


”


covered in frost, the wind was blowing for eight months solid, and I was telling myself it’s time to get some heat in my bones and get out of here


for eight months solid, and I was telling myself it’s time to get some heat in my bones and get out of here.”


If the Irish winds were proving a touch too cold, then arrival in Dubai was the opposite. Dònal likens it to the first waft of air when you open an oven every time you step outside in the summer. During his walks to catch the bus at half three in the morning, the humidity would have him soaked in sweat until he returned home that night. For him, that was the biggest change to


face. Workwise, he was thrown straight in and went with the flow before the opportunity came to join Craig Haldane at Emirates Golf Club, where he has fully adapted to the elements, both for himself and for the courses.


“The effect of no water on the course can


take a day or two to show, depending on the weather. Once Bermuda or paspalum is


We do an awful lot of hand hosing during the summer because irrigation is never one hundred percent perfect, so hot spots will appear


” 16 PC April/May 2021


deprived of water, it does come back, but it’s very hard to bring it back. We do an awful lot of hand hosing during the summer because irrigation is never one hundred percent perfect, so hot spots will appear. And you have those tell-tale greens or areas on the course that you can keep your eye on because you know if that goes, you need to keep an eye out on other areas.” “The thing about the water we use is it’s very high in salt, and salts and grasses don’t really mix. Paspalum is a somewhat salt- tolerant grass, so it does thrive with the water that we put on. The problem is that you’re putting on all this water, and the salt starts to build up and, when the grassroot hits salt, it shuts down. So, between the Air2G2, needle tining and our renovation, we need to open up that profile and get as much sand in there for drainage as we can.” “We call it flushing. Let’s say we go out on


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