Australian Ladies Masters in a race to dry out the golf course

Royal Pines drying out ahead of this week’s Australian Ladies Masters.

The 2013 Volvik RACV Australian Ladies Masters will tee off at Royal Pines tomorrow despite the course copping an absolute drenching due to the recent storms that have cause unprecedented flooding in the region.

The first fairway at Royal Pines on Wednesday. Image courtesy of LET Tour.
Not much of the east coast of Australia was spared and the Gold Coast also felt the full brunt of the storms with some areas receiving up to 400 mm of rain last weekend. 
Needless to say the Royal Pines golf course has been fighting an uphill battle all week to prepare the course for this week’s Australian Ladies Masters (co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour) which features Karrie Webb, Sarah Kemp, Sophie Gustafson, last year’s winner Christel Boeljon and Tiger Woods’ niece, Cheyenne Woods.
The Gold Coast Bulletin is reporting that tournament director Ben Touhy is worried about the course conditions and whether the course staff can have the course ready in time.

“The greens surrounds and aprons have all been cut, but there are massive problems on about seven holes,” Tuohy said. 

“The bridge on the seventh hole is still under and we can’t get to probably six other holes at the moment. So the players can’t walk the course yet. 

“Half of the adjoining eighth fairway was also under water.” 

“I have never seen as much water out there as this year.”

Today’s pro-am was all but cancelled due to the conditions. Let’s hope the green staff at Royal Pines can work a few miracles and have the golf course ready for the opening round on tomorrow.

The full draw, tee times and more information can be found at the Australian Ladies Masters website.


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