By Jamie Lillywhite
BBC Sport at Royal Troon |
The great Bobby Locke used to send Christmas cards to Royal Troon, where he won the 1950 Open, always inscribed with the same message "still the best greens in the world".
It is an accolade that today's top players are quick to agree with.
 The greens at Royal Troon have been heaped with praise |
Links courses generally have the natural advantage of undulations, pace and tight hard-wearing turf, but in the league table of putting surfaces, Troon is widely acknowledged to be at the top. One of the men responsible for maintaining this reputation is Ken Arthur, the Greens Conveyor, who co-ordinates between the committee and Greens Manager Billy McLoughlin.
There are 14 permanent staff working on the course, but they also have to look after the Portland course and a par-three course also owned by the club.
The other courses are reduced to public car parks for the Open, but can boast of greens of similar pace and quality to the famous one alongside.
For the Open, four additional staff are carefully recruited from other clubs: "We know their skills," said Ken.
The Open offers little time for the staff to look after the course, but Ken says everything always gets done.
 |  This is my personal opinion, but I thought it was farcical |
"They are on the course by 0415. The greens will be double cut and the tees and surrounds will be cut," he said.
"We will probably use the fairway mowers to make sure there is no dew on the ground and repair any divots.
"There is a very limited amount of time between first light and first play for the first two days.
"Then in the evening, after play, they have to come back and tidy up, make sure the straw is off the paths, take a stimp reading."
The position of the holes is always a key factor, and a select group of stalwarts were seen plotting and planning on the eve of the championship.
"It is the R&A's tournament and they decide where the pins go," Ken says.
"We advise them, we tell them where it gets wet and where not to put one but they know their business."
| TROON HISTORY 1878: Troon Golf Club set up despite the land being described as unsuitable 1923: Stages its first Open 1950: Hosts event for the second time 1978: Granted "Royal" status 1997: Justin Leonard wins the Open the last time Royal Troon hosted the Open |
Which brings us to the subject of this year's US Open at Shinnecock Hills, one of the most controversial of recent majors, which saw the world's best putting off the other side of greens into bunkers.
"This is my personal opinion, but I thought it was farcical," Ken confides.
"They reputedly cut the greens at two millimetres, I'd like to see them now, I bet there is nothing left of them! Troon is a fair test."
So how are the best greens in the business prepared for the most famous golf tournament in the world?
"We have an agronomist who advises us," Ken explains.
"We top dress about six times a season, the last one was about five weeks before the Open, with a fine tine, brushing the mixture in."
The conversation then drifts towards tips for the miniature course that I slave over in my garden, and I totally forget that I am here in a professional capacity.
Back to the old course at Troon, and the height, if you can call it that, of the mower blades.
"We had them set at 3.5mm for the practise rounds but the R&A wanted extra pace so we lowered them to 3.2mm for the first two days.
| We have a problem with moles sometimes - rabbits are not too bad |
"We knew it was going to be wet so they are 3.1 today (Saturday's third round) to balance the changing weather.
"We will see about Sunday, we would be very careful. It's not just about the Open, this is a members club and we don't want to skim them."
But what of unwanted intruders. I noticed a rabbit burrow on the far side of the course and wondered, as a gardener plagued by the little "chaps" how they would be dealt with.
"We have a problem with moles sometimes," Ken says. "Rabbits are not too bad, they are just in one place by the railway line, they come over from a wood on the other side."
Ken's phone rings, someone has driven into a bunker on the Portland course, not a golf ball but a Vauxhall Astra.
Is this a serious problem? Not to these venerable salts of the earth.
MMIX
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