The greens have taken a fair quantity of rain recently - Monday-Friday this week was 25 mm (and more since), on top of 47 mm last week. They have responded with some strong growth (roughly double ‘normal’) but reacted well to an application of growth regulator which quickly took it back to what we’d expect. Nonetheless they managed a speed of 9’7" on Friday morning. The rain on Thursday prevented us being able to use the Turf Iron for the Pro-Am. At 05:45 when Gavin came in there was ponding on some greens, including the putting green, but it had cleared by the time play had started. The players had a wet morning, nonetheless. Despite that, there were several compliments on the course quality, with one of the professionals saying our greens were the best he’d played on in the North West.

In the short term, staffing is a problem. Mike has left and his replacement is not due to start until July 1: James goes in for corrective surgery on his knee on Monday and anticipates being laid up for 8 weeks. Gavin will be short-handed for most of the summer and will have to concentrate on mowing.

The robot mower continues to impress Gavin with its versatility and cut quality. The supplier is coming in to generate some cost and productivity figures to give a financial view on what will be involved were we to switch, either wholly or partly.

Course Committee