It's here and Killeen Castle has never looked as well

TEE TO GREEN:The course has been closed for the last couple of weeks and I've got to say that it's in marvellous condition. Spectators are in for a treat

IT’S HERE. Well, nearly. And, in all honesty, I’ve never seen the course here at Killeen Castle looking as well. With just a matter of days to go before the Solheim Cup actually starts, the arrival of a few European players to play a practice round yesterday – the first players to play the course for a couple of weeks – brought home the fact the years of preparation are complete and we’re coming down the home stretch. The years have turned to months, then weeks and, now, days!

The course was closed to play for the past two weeks and it has been an eventful couple of weeks, on and off the course, but it has all gone really well. We’re ready, and the course is ready. The lack of traffic on the course for the past fortnight has made a huge difference, particularly on the greens. We’ve had little or no golf on the course during that time and it has really enabled it to recover fantastically.

The Ladies Irish Open last month was a great success and the amount of golf which Killeen Castle has put through in recent months is great from a business perspective but very difficult from a course preparation point of view. So, the two weeks when the course was closed for play was very necessary and we have got the growth of grass to the density we wanted for the Solheim Cup.

In terms of course preparation, we’ve had a constant mowing of the grass to improve density and we’ve also repaired ball marks and got the surfaces cleaned up. The almost two weeks of course closure has allowed surfaces to come back and we’ve got in a lot of bunker work too, getting the steep faces we have packed up with sand. We’ve worked to our programme and I’ve got to say the course is in marvellous condition.

The fairways are a picture. For the Irish Open, we went half and half – light and dark – but for the Solheim Cup we have a diamond pattern on the fairways and it looks brilliant. Spectators are in for a treat. We’ve adjusted the rope line and, in a lot of cases, the line is right on top of the fairways and almost right on top of the greens. From a spectators’ point of view, it will be absolutely phenomenal. We’ll have large amounts of people following matches and getting fantastic views.

We’re in for a busy time. The mowing practices during the Solheim Cup will be tees, greens and approaches mown every morning and the holes will be changed. Stimpmetre readings will determine whether the greens are double cut in the morning. Then, in between matches, the greens are mown, again the holes changed. In the afternoon, all the fairways and semi-rough are cut. The weather forecast is for high winds, which means blowing away leaves and debris, etc. You’re talking of days starting at 5.30am and finishing for us at 8.30pm. They’ll be long days, but great. This is what we’ve been working towards all along.

During the actual matches, we’ll also have two bunker rakers out with each of the foursomes and the fourballs and, during the singles, we’ll have one with each of the matches on Sunday.

My own team, who have been brilliant in implementing the programme since we were awarded the Solheim Cup, has been augmented in the past few days by greenkeepers from as close as Black Bush to as far away as Italy and Holland. The support we’ve got from neighbouring clubs and courses around the country has been absolutely brilliant considering the current economic climate and nobody is overstaffed. The greenkeeping volunteers arrived here on Saturday – 32 of them – and it has really put the icing on the cake in terms of final preparations.

Mark Collins is Course Superintendent at Killeen Castle, host course for the Solheim Cup starting on Friday.