Golf
much difference between now and a couple of years ago. It would be very difficult to tell what has been moved and what hasn’t.”
Colin had quite a big say in these changes, especially in respect of contouring. “That’s important, because we’re the people who have to work with the way the course is, not the architects. We worked closely with Martin on each of the hole projects, which carried us through the whole of winter of 2010.” The last couple of years have been a very active period to say the least because Muirfield has had its irrigation system upgraded too. The changes that Martin Hawtree introduced have definitely made the course that bit tougher - still fair - but tougher, and a bit longer. The par- five 9th, for example, was previously a 506-yard hole. It is now an even more testing 556-yarder. Specific work in readiness for the 2013 Open begins in earnest the previous October when fairway sanding and bunker re-facing get under way, though Colin points out that he’s been in pre- Open mode since the day Muirfield’s next appointment with the event was
announced.
When the club’s summer season concludes, that’s when the serious preparation really starts. In truth, the over-winter work doesn’t vary much from the normal routine, though there’s inevitably that much more attention to detail. “The R&A are quite happy that the course ‘looks lived in’, so we will only re- face some of the more prominent bunkers,” say Colin. “Many were done last winter and, as long as the ball won’t get lost in a facing, they are perfectly acceptable.” There’s a huge responsibility on Colin to see that Muirfield presents a magnificent Open Championship course again in 2013, but the R&A do not breathe down his neck at all. They know he’s the top professional on the spot. He knows every inch of the course and the local conditions inside out. He’s a seasoned Open course manager too, having presided over things in 2002, the year of Ernie Els great win and the last time the event came to the course. After eighteen years in charge, nothing takes Colin by surprise - or catches him out.
It’s in spring that the mowing regime intensifies and becomes a bigger part of daily work. It’s the volume of work that steps up significantly. Television may well have a bearing on the way Colin does the mowing for the 2013 Open. In the last one, ten years ago, he cut the fairways ‘half and half ’, but not long after that someone at the R&A got to like the one-way cut at Augusta, and it now seems as though it may be applied to Open fairways. “It’s not set in stone yet, but I know
they are looking at it again this year, so we may have to be ready for it,” says Colin. “All of us Open course managers have discussed the issue and it is more of a problem at some courses than others. It depends on staff and equipment levels, of course. Then there’s the question of mowing towards or away from the tee? There’s not a lot of difference in the nap on a links course, so I would think the roll of the ball wouldn’t be an issue. It’s really just how it looks. If that’s what they want, that’s what we’ll have to produce. We’ll see. We’re ready for it, if it happens”
“The R&A are quite happy that the course ‘looks lived in’, so we will only re-face some of the more prominent bunkers”
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