Apologies to the players who started out today but wasn't that rain magnificent.  A bit more than 30mm and not too much run off except for a very heavy shower in the middle of the day.  It was certainly very welcome and hopefully is the start of more to come.

 

A very welcome sight in the compound today!!

The West renovations went well and a lot of material was removed.   This material is what is known as thatch which is defined as a layer of living and dead stems, roots and other organic matter that is between the soil surface and the leaf blades.  At renovation time we can go deeper and remove way more thatch than we can with our regular de-thatching program.  The photo below shows the surface after we have finished the de-thatching process and prior to aeration which was done with just a solid tine this year.  As I have said before it's not something we particularly enjoy doing, especially in the heat we had on Monday and Tuesday but it is so vital for the health of the turf.

Lots of material removed.

And hats off to the crew at Royal Melbourne ably led by Richard Forsyth on the presentation of the course for the Presidents Cup.  It's a bit sad to see what the massive galleries do to the incredibly valuable native roughs which will take years to recover but the course is a delight to watch golf on.  45 volunteers from around the world have joined the normal crew of 45 to present the courses to this level with many saying it is some of the best turfgrass they have ever seen.  Interesting to note that in 1988 I was across the road at Victoria GC and went over to help out the preps for the Bicentennial Classic at RM, which at the time was the biggest tournament ever held in Australia.  My presence lifted the crew number to fifteen for the week!!  At that stage the club only owned one fairway mower that after mowing as much of the tournament course as it could in the morning would then head out on the other "paddocks" as they call them and keep on mowing!!

 

The crew!!