The Air2G2 from Campey Turf Care Systems is being used at Emirate’s Golf Club, Dubai, to keep the award-winning Majlis Course in prime condition.

Machinery manager and second assistant, Dónal Mulvey,  has worked for Emirates Golf Club since January 2017 having completed a Bachelor of Sci-ence in Horticulture, which included a 30-week placement at Royal Dublin Golf Club as a greenkeeper, where he stayed for a further five years training as a greenkeeper and mechanic. With almost four years of experience working on the Middle East’s first grass golf course, he is familiar with the issues faced in one of the driest and arid regions of the world, where reusing salt-rich treated sewage effluent (TSE) water is common practice.

After seeing the Air2G2 on various social media platforms and first-hand at GIS, the club thought the machine could be an asset to the Majlis’ 30-year-old push-up greens that host 45,000 rounds of golf a year as well as the Faldo Course, which takes 55,000.

“We purchased the Air2G2 for many different reasons,” Dónal explains. "The main one being the Majlis greens are 30-year-old push-up greens with no drainage. Given the high volume of water we put out which is all TSE water, we have a constant issue with salt build-up and air exchange. We also have a high volume of golf throughout the year, and any aeration we can do with no disturb-ance to the greens is extremely beneficial.

“The machine does exactly what it claims to do providing deep aeration with no surface disturbance. We can run it at any time, and the golfers are none the wiser. We mainly tackle weak areas on the greens, and the machine is used three times a month on the entire green and four to six times on collars and affected areas.

“The more and more we use it, the less noticeable it is. When we first started the ground would move slightly due to compaction. Now that we run it regularly, there is no movement in the soil, and there is less compaction and more oxygen, and we can also see moisture and EC levels drop after using the machine.”