Seven days without rain has been a very welcome change although there are still some areas that are yet to dry out on the courses.  4 and 10W still have boggy areas on them and I can't recall that happening previously after such a dry run.  The general rule of thumb is that the West is about a day and a half behind the River course in drying out.  Some cooler overnight temperatures have really snapped the greens back with a loss of colour and growth.  We were able to get what maybe the final de-thatching of the season done on the West greens this week which really leveled the surface up nicely.

Whilst out on the West greens the number of unrepaired pitch marks was glaring and a blight on the putting surface. It is well documented that an unrepaired pitchmark takes weeks to recover whereas a properly repaired one can be instant.  The one in the photo below was one of about a dozen on 14W green and the arrows indicate the area that has been scalped by the mowers.  At this time of year that will be there for six weeks. 

 

We continued on with some more tree works this week opening up the playing corridor on 4W.  Unfortunately further tree work will be put on hold for a few weeks as we have some major amounts of golf coming up over the next month.  A week of shotguns next week followed by the Fanning charity golf day and then the senior matchplay.  Let's hope the rain stays away so we can get them all in.  And please remember to fix your pitchmarks!!