The West greens have recovered remarkably well from their renovation and mowing heights have returned to pre renovation heights.  One of the difficulties in the weeks following the renovation is mowing in the dew in the mornings as the mowers pick up a lot of sand that cake the rollers and affect the cut and as anyone who has a mechanical bone in their body will know that sand and bearings don't like each other, let alone sand with bedknives and cutting reels.  The mowers lose their quality of cut very quickly while the sand is present which explains some of the stripy marks on some greens.

A busy week with spring type temperatures saw some tree root pruning carried out as well as some root removal from fairways.  We also investigated why a 300mm drain is blocked on the LHS of 4 West and have discovered a blockage right under the parking bay at the rear of the green.  That's right - under 100mm of concrete!!

The root pruning was an interesting project and I had a trial of this machine last year with some good results so have trialed it in several different locations, particularly around tees and greens.  One of the difficulties for us is the myriad of pipes and tubes running under the courses that the blades, although only cutting 230mm deep may come in contact with.  A run was made down the RHS of 18 River tee (see below for a video) and this will be a very prominent area to see just how effective the operation is.  I would expect to see significant improvement on this tee over the coming months.  Another prominent place to look out for is the rear of 10 River green.