Golf
Rotary mowing the rough
The evening shift started at 4:30pm. We would have some dinner and then Clay would say his few words again. The atmosphere in the maintenance facility every day was brilliant to be a part of, and everybody mingled and wanted to get to know each other. It was usually after 5.00pm when we left the sheds. My job, most evenings, was to hand cut the rough with rotary mowers. It usually took about ten of us to do this every evening. We would cut out to about 80 yards from the green on either side and all around the green surround. You had to be pretty careful as there were so many television wires and fibre optic cable everywhere. All the other jobs stayed the
same as the AM shift, apart from the bunkers, which weren’t raked in the evenings. We usually finished up between 8.30 and 9.00pm, and then it was a quick bite to eat and back to the dorms around 10.00pm. Tuesday was the same setup
as the previous day and everybody was starting to get accustomed to their roles and things were beginning to run a little smoother. Wednesday morning it rained pretty heavily for a spell, so our AM start time was delayed by an hour. Clay decided to iron the greens first as he thought they’d puffed up a bit with the rain, then hand cut, then iron again. There was also a lot more moisture in the greens (some at 40%), so they ran the sub-air systems which can draw 2% moisture an hour out of the greens. The bunkers were machine raked first as the rain had left them too solid to hand rake.
By the end of Wednesday,
everything was in good shape again. This was a special day as most of the golfers had turned up for practice and we could get a look at them up close. I spotted Paul McGinley walking the course and taking notes for Sky Sports. I popped over and said hello and he was very nice. I spent a few minutes talking to him about how I got here and about Naas Golf Club, where he was once a junior member. Wednesday evening dinner was brilliant - everyone was in flying form and then Ian Poulter came into the tent to give us a bit of a motivational speech and a few compliments. It was a really nice touch from him to come over and do that. Thursday morning was pretty
intense as this was the first day of competition and we had to make sure nothing was out of place. We finished up on the blowers and jumped back to rake bunkers with the bunker crew who were just keeping ahead of play. A rules official was unhappy with a few of the bunkers and wanted them raked again. It was great having breakfast that morning as we knew the place looked really sharp. Thursday lunchtime, we
watched some golf and they ran some really good seminars each day on calibrations, spraying and diseases, which we sat in on.
Thursday evening’s setup
didn’t start until around 6.00pm. It was an eye opener trying to get past people in Gators with trailers attached. A lot of spectators at TPC Sawgrass like to have some
UK Contact: Patrick Ripley
patrick.ripley@gianniferrari.com
www.gianniferrari.com UK Contact: Patrick Ripley
PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015 I 21
Smooth effortless operations
RE-DESIGNED DASHBOARD
INTUITIVE JOYSTICK
CRUISE CONTROL
TIGHT
TURNING CIRCLE
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