The front nine West greens are back down to normal mowing height although there is still a fair amount of recovery required to get the surface back to normal.  The back 9 greens on the West are putting very well although they only have a few weeks left in their current dimensions!!  The temporaries had another sanding this week and are nearly at the height of the other West greens and should provide a very good putting surface.  They will be a little on the soft side due to the level of thatch that they were sown in to so pitch mark repair is still required.

I have been asked several times lately about what will happen with the material that is removed from the greens.  Apart from the grass most of the material is extremely useful although I don't expect good quality material to come out of 10W in particular.  Some of the grass will be trucked away whilst any suitable material will be carted a short distance and spread over tree root areas in among tree lines to help solve another problem we have.  Some material will be used as fill for some of the soft soggy areas at the front of greens such as 13 and 16.  Some of the material should be free of roots and other contaminants and it is planned to use this to topdress fairways and some tees if it is deemed good enough and there will also be some set aside for access repairs.  Considering that somewhere between 15 and 20 truckloads of fill material will be placed in each green there will certainly be some repair works necessary.  So hopefully very little will go to waste.

The weather continues and I don't think I have seen the tees in such good condition at this time of year before which is quite handy due to the play they are getting.  The back men's tees on the River had last weeks Medal followed by today's back marker challenge and now have four days of play in a week for the Club Champs.  Couple this with the disappointing number of players who persist playing from the back tees and it's a wonder there is any grass at all.  

Next week will see the removal of the tree stumps dotted around the courses and some preparatory work for the irrigation on the back 9 West greens.

 Good luck to all competitors in the Club Championships.