The Island Golf Glub is situated on a sand bar in North Co. Dublin. It was established in 1890, which makes it one of the oldest golf courses in Ireland. In fact it was one of the first twelve golf clubs founded in the country.

The club recently hosted the qualifying rounds of The 2019 Amateur Championship (17th and 18th of June). Previous winners of The Amateur Championship include Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia. This year’s winner was Corkman James Sugrue from Mallow Golf Club.

The Course Manager at Island Golf Club is Dave Edmondson and he relies on reliable machinery to maintain the course, not only for the recently held Amateur Championship, but throughout the whole year as well.

Dave Edmondson in front of some of his mowers

Dave is not from this part of the world but hails from Preston in Lancashire. Before coming to work at Island Golf Club, he spent time working at Royal Ostend Golf Club in Belgium.

Dave has an agreement with Reesink Turfcare IRL where he uses Toro equipment for maintaining his turf. Doug Reid, sales representative with Reesink Turfcare IRL is Dave’s contact with the company.

“We have a five year rolling plan with Reesink Turfcare IRL, when all our Toro machines are replaced. We get a good trade-in price for the old stock, as they are well maintained and serviced. This means we will always have up to date and reliable equipment to maintain the course”, said Dave.

Keith Byrne is Senior Greenkeeper at Island Golf Club and he also happens to be a qualified mechanic. Dave acknowledges how fortunate he is in having Keith when it comes to machinery repairs and service. Most of the grinding and back lapping is also done by Keith.

Hand mowing one of the greens at Island Golf Club

Other machinery items Dave has include a 3 ton and ½ ton Dakota sand spreader for topdressing fairways and greens respectively. He also has a Kubota tractor along with two Clubcar Carryalls which are both hired from The Buggy Man in Co. Kildare.

The equipment Dave has at his disposal is well capable of maintaining the most difficult areas of the course. He recently purchased an Amazon Profihopper rough mower, which allows him to maintain the long rough areas a lot better. These areas are only cut once a year so the grass can be very strong. “The Amazon Profi Hopper follows the humps and hollows very well, a lot better than anything I have had on site before” said Dave.

Having reliable equipment at Island Golf Club makes life a lot easier maintaining this superb links course. Long may it last.