GOLF On the face of it,


seventy-two staff for two eighteen-hole


”


Championship Courses and a par three course may seem a lot, but between hand watering, cutting, landscaping and machinery maintenance, no one has a quiet day


much grows itself, and the problem is trying to stop it growing during the summer.” Keeping up with the continually growing grass is a challenge at Emirates, with the greenkeeping team cutting every day of the year to keep the courses in prime condition. As Dònal talks through an average daily and weekly routine, it becomes clear that cutting isn’t the only thing that needs to be done constantly.


On the face of it, seventy-two staff for two eighteen-hole Championship Courses and a par three course may seem a lot, but between hand watering, cutting, landscaping and machinery maintenance, no one has a quiet day. As Fleet Manager, ensuring the equipment at the team’s disposal, including a one hundred and seventy golf cart fleet, is ready for a gruelling work schedule falls to Dònal, and it is one that the heat plays a significant part in.


“When I first came in five years ago, preventative maintenance was done to the manual, which is right, but given the conditions and the amount of usage and hours that we rack up on the machines, it just wasn’t sufficient enough. One of the first things I did was shorten the intervals between preventative maintenance, and the other thing was grinding.”


“Bermuda and paspalum grass is thick and so hard-wearing, especially on the bedknives and the reels. When I first came over here, my team was backlapping every day, and I was like, you only ground this the other day; you don’t need to backlap. So I got a GP400, ground it, set it out and two days later, they tell me it’s not cutting, and I was thinking I only ground this two days ago, so I took off the bedknife, and I couldn’t believe the wear over two days. It's not something I like doing, but we have to backlap every day!” “We’re using Foley grinders. They were a new purchase three years ago now, and it’s one of the best things we ever bought. One of the main reasons we picked Foley was its


18 PC April/May 2021


ease of use. Five of my eleven guys can use it, and I can say today we’re grinding greens mowers, and one of the guys will do that all day, and then we’ll do fairway mowers in two days, and a different guy can go in and do it. We also have a great relationship with Arjen Spek at Foley who is always there when we need him.” “That's one of the main reasons we love the Foley grinders because you have to go step by step. My team is amazing, and I actually don’t say you need to grind; you need to backlap - they know, which is a huge load off my back. They know the standards that have been set for them and,


when you have a team like that, you just say go ahead.” “And I don't have to sit there and watch to


make sure they are grinding the correct way because it’s all pre-set in the grinders, and that’s why I love them so much.” “One of the things we do quite regularly during the summer, in addition to the preventative maintenance programme, is checking fluids - hydraulic oil, engine oil, and especially coolant. We’ll clean out the radiators and clean out the air filters and we will be greasing all the time. Let’s say every second week, the rough mowers will come in because they work three and a half to four


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