When Potters Point holiday resort in County Wicklow, Ireland replaced its golf course maintenance equipment fleet, it carried on a 20-year association with John Deere and dealers Dublin Grass Machinery.


The Potters Point greens staff with their new John Deere course maintenance fleet (left to right): Charlie Jackson, head greenkeeper Eamonn Delaney and Chris Doyle

This exclusive luxury mobile home park was established in 1957 and is situated in rolling parkland on a stunning headland overlooking Brittas Bay. Resort members have free use of Potters Point Golf Club; established in 1987, the nine-hole parkland course is also open to green fee paying non-members. 

“We bought our first John Deere machines in 1997,” says manager Irene Lacey. “We’d had nothing new since 2008, so the fleet was getting old. This time, rather than replace the machines individually and pay for ongoing repairs, we decided to change all the equipment at the same time. The benefits were a better trade-in price and all the new machines being up-to-date and equipped with the latest technology.”

The new fleet includes three PrecisionCut cylinder mowers - an 8700A for the fairways, a 2653B for tees and surrounds and a 2500B for the greens - a JX90 walk-behind rotary mower, a 1200A bunker rake, two 3038R compact tractors equipped with mid-mounted rotary mower decks plus one front loader, and three 6x4 diesel Gator utility vehicles.

“We opted to replace two quad bikes with an extra utility vehicle, as the Gator is far more versatile,” says Irene. 

Whereas other makes have been demonstrated and test-driven in the past, this time Potters Point went straight to its long-time supplier, John Deere dealer Dublin Grass Machinery.

“I have been on a number of John Deere courses, so I know the equipment better than other makes,” says head greenkeeper Eamonn Delaney. “We've dealt with Dublin Grass Machinery for the past 20 years and know that they provide a high level of after-sales service.

“I also have a good working relationship with their chief technician Roger Ingles. We carry out regular maintenance on-site, while Dublin Grass Machinery takes the machines in for winter servicing and blade changing, and provides a 24 hour turnaround. As the equipment is serviced regularly, we’ve very little downtime and it means the staff are not having to sort out machines when we could be doing something else around the resort."