Historic Royal County Down Golf Club has entered a new era of grounds and course maintenance with the selection of Makita 40Vmax XGT and 18V LXT tools.
The cordless range has helped streamline tasks, improve safety and reduce noise disturbance to players, the club reports.
One of the oldest courses in Northern Ireland, Royal County Down is famed for its challenging play and stunning scenery on the Irish Sea coast with a backdrop of the Mountains of Mourne.
Established in 1889, it evolved quickly into the 18-hole links it is today and soon gained a reputation among golfers; the course has been played by some of the best of every era – competitively, for practice or recreationally.
Royal County Down has also hosted championships throughout its history, including five times as the venue for the Irish Open, part of the European Tour.
Given the demanding task of maintaining the course and the areas around the clubhouse, the Royal County Down team need tools fully meeting their needs. Following an initial introduction to the range by Shea McKernan, Makita innovation on-site specialist, links manager Eamonn Crawford agreed to a demo of key products.
Trials success
Eamonn and his team were impressed and agreed to trial line trimmers, multi-function split shafts, blowers, mowers, pressure washers and vacuums – the latter identified as useful for clearing water.
Mechanics maintaining the club’s equipment also trialled Makita products and Royal County Down invested in XGT 40vMAX blowers, edgers, saws and hedge trimmers.
“Quality is an important factor for us,” said Eamonn.
“We only use the best. Our approach is to always select what we feel is the best tool for the job and we have invested in the cordless machines carefully.
“The Makita tools have proved to be very good to use and a valuable addition to our kit – the first big test being their use in the run-up to and during the Irish Open.
“The blowers are considerably quieter than the petrol machines we had been using, which means we can work easier around the course and buildings without disturbing the golfers. The handheld pruning saws are popular among the team and have allowed us to do away with the manual bow saws we had been using for jobs like cutting gorse.
The battery runtimes have also impressed us with less charging – so we can finish our work without interruption.”
