It would be hard not to write anything concerning golf without mentioning Cameron Smith and The Open Championship this past week.  A truly remarkable effort and I don't know if it is because I watched so intently but the telecast this year seemed to show the undulations so much better than before and it really did show just HOW undulating the course is.  With no real wind to speak of the course was there for the taking with the greens on the slow side which is normal as there are few tournaments played at St Andrews that don't have some type of wind interruption.  The Open has certainly grown into a marquee golf event and is a credit to the organisers.  Even in my lifetime it is significantly bigger than it ever was when it was known as The British Open.  Old Tom Morris won four Opens and across those wins he beat just 52 players.  Cameron Smith beat the 82 who made the cut and the 155 who started the week out and the thousands who tried to pre qualify for the event.  But I feel a tad sorry for Peter O"Malley who finished eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie eagle to win the 1992 Scottish Open and really never got the plaudits that finish to win deserved.  

Back on the Tweed and the bad weather is back again.  This week was also very cold and dull and it is really having an effect on the turfgrass across the courses.  Particularly on the northern side of the east - west fairways such as 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14 and 18 River as well as 1 and 7 West.  I mentioned earlier in the year that after such a cloudy wet summer a lot of turf would struggle on the courses and it is really plain to see now.  The shaded greens and tees are also very thin and we still have a way to go before any real recovery.  We also have a couple of huge months of play coming up so the tees in particular will be very closely managed to try and keep a grass cover on them. 

As per usual we took advantage of the low play days at the end of the week and got the West greens edged and trimmed and then got a solid tine aeration completed on the West greens today which is the best way to get some much needed air to the rootzone.  We will try and get the River greens done early next week which isn't easy in amongst play.

Another two large irrigation repairs required this week although irrigation is about the furthest thing from my mind at the moment but they need to be done to keep the system operating.  An electrical fault this morning on the power line that supplies the on course irrigation controllers with a short out happening somewhere in the field and after seven hours of tracing we hope we have found it.  The fault is normally caused by lightning but I am pretty sure we didn't get any lightning overnight.  I guess snow and lightning is about all we have missed out on this week??!!

I am writing this at 5pm on Friday afternoon and another heavy squall has just blown through and it's all but dark and cold.   Next Tuesday's forecast of sunny and 24° seems a world away.