Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates: With something strange in the neighbourhood, Al Hamra Golf Club is calling on Ghostbusters-style sanitising backpacks to counter Covid-19 fears and instil confidence in members and guests.

In their attempts to exterminate Coronavirus from the property, staff at one of the most progressive golfing establishments in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are employing extraordinary measures.

“Members of our team are wearing these Ghostbusters-like backpacks and going around spraying down everything,” said Paul Booth, General Manager at the first Gulf golf club to have become a member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF).

“It’s helped to reassure our members and guests, because when they see sanitisers everywhere around the club, sanitising stations for the golf carts and the guys walking around with their backpacks, they realise we’re taking this situation seriously,” added Booth, speaking in the latest in a series of AGIF podcasts with prominent figures from the industry that are being broadcast at www.agif.asia

Such a thorough approach is paying dividends at the 18-hole Peter Harradine-designed Al Hamra Golf Club, where activity has been bustling since the re-opening of the facility which forms part of Al Hamra Village, the flagship master-planned development of Al Hamra Real Estate Development, one of the UAE’s most significant real estate developers.

Booth, who has served with Troon Golf for 13 years, said: “Overall, the uptake since our re-opening has been very promising. Green fee revenue has been doing exceptionally well and food and beverage has been fantastic considering that we’re only allowed to operate at 30% of capacity. Every table has to be 2.5 metres apart with a maximum of four people at a table.”

The creation of a temporary membership structure aimed at getting people playing golf again has also proved successful.

Booth said: “So far we’ve sold 22 temporary memberships and hopefully we’ll be able to convert them into becoming full-time members. Retail has also been very good.

“The only areas in which we’re falling behind are golf lessons, because we haven’t been able to conduct these, and range rental and rental equipment simply because we haven’t been open to full scale. However, across the facility we’re very happy with where we are at this moment.”

*To listen to the full interview with Paul Booth, please visit https://agif.asia/agif-podcast/

**Troon and Al Hamra Golf Club are both members of the Asian Golf Industry Federation. If you’d like to reach the Federation’s 10,000+ global audience via newsletter, website, Facebook and LinkedIn, become an AGIF member. For further details, please visit https://agif.asia/join-the-agif/