What an incredible month July was for everyone associated with Royal Portrush Golf Club.
The praise that the course and the club received was very pleasing even though we had a very wet month of July with 4 inches of rain from the 10th-21st.
The 148th Open was an amazing experience which none of us will forget but for most of the Greenkeepers it was work as normal the next day be it a little bleary eyed.
It really is difficult to sum up the last month on the links with all that the Open has entailed.
Myself and the green staff feel very privileged to have been a part of what was a historic sporting event.
Here are some statistics of the event from a Greenkeeping perspective.
13 pedestrian greens mowers
10 Fairway and surround mowers
6 Tees mowers
2 Hole changing and painting
3 mowing bunker banks
6 bunker raking
8 Tidying & quality control
3 practice area preparation
1 Servicing and tidying tees
As well as additional work with contractors and any other requests from the R&A
The Team including volunteers for the Open Championship
Support equipment shipped from the UK and Ireland was made up of
5 Fairway mowers
13 Hand mowers
2 Triflex tees mowers
2 Sidewinder Trim/35mm cylinder mowers
10 Workman buggies
1 Towed blower
Various handheld blowers, strimmers and mowers from Husqvarna
We set the course up in the morning, and while some staff were able to go home there were some key staff such as Stephen Walker (RPGC mechanic) who worked through the day to adjust and prepare all of the equipment for the next shift.
In the evenings everyone returned for that shift which included
Mowing greens
Mowing surrounds
Mowing rough and trim
Mowing all practice ground areas and filling divots
Flymowing bunkers
Filling divots and repairing pitchmarks
R&A staff along with our hole changing team measuring and placing daily hole positions
Richard mowing the 14th green
Some great memories were made but it’s back to normal for the Greenkeepers along with some additional repair work to get the spectator areas back to normal and reinstate turf damaged by tented villages etc.
Fantastic …… Well done to you and all your team Graeme. As tweeter Allis would say, ‘Majestic’
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Absolutely fascinating and well done to all!
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