Life Is Slowly Returning To Normal

The 2013 CN Canadian Women's Open is over and The Royal Mayfair is settling back into our normal day to day operations. All course materials should be out on the course by the end of today. Washrooms have been reopened, the drinking fountains are once again flowing and all the ball washers will be filled. It would have been great to have everything in place Tuesday morning but there are only so many hours in a day and my entire staff aside from Eric, Ian and myself had a well deserved day off on Monday. Please be patient if you notice something out of place. We are aware of it and will get to it soon.

Before I blog about recovery work that will be ongoing over the next few weeks some thank-you's are in order.

I'll begin by thanking the Royal Mayfair Membership for opening up your facility and allowing this tournament to be held here. I hope you are proud of the golf course. It stood up well and showed the golfing world what Edmonton and Alberta has to offer. I cannot miss thanking, Mr. Don McGarvey, Mr. Kevin Mckee, all the Volunteer Chairpersons, Robb James and his team, Brian Lacasse and his staff for looking after us and keeping us fed, the clubhouse staff and especially our GM, Mr. Wade Hudyma who seemed to be everywhere at all times ready to shake hands and offer encouragement to my team.

Our experience and time spent with CN, Golf Canada, all the setup teams, the LPGA and the great group of volunteers was an experience I will never forget. Bo Ream and his officials from the LPGA taught me more about major tournament preparation and rules that will help me in the future. The spectators were very respectful of the course and it was an awesome sight to see that many people completely surrounding the 18th hole on Sunday.

I would also like to thank the competitors for their kind comments and appreciation of the golf course. Their praise of the conditions and the tournament as a whole validated the work we put into the facility. A huge thank you to the champion Lydia Ko for her comments about the course and especially the greens. Probably the best thing I heard all week. Make that THE BEST thing I heard.

My last and most important thanks goes out to my Turf Care team and all the volunteers we had from area golf courses. To have colleagues, their staff and industry suppliers here was a great help. Without that kind of  committment an event like this cannot be held. Ok, my last, last thank you goes out to 3 very professional people on my staff. Ian Scott, our equipment technician, Eric Mitskopoulos, 1st Assistant and David Smith, 2nd Assistant. To make a long story short, they are critical to our success. End of story. Thanks Guys!!!!

Another blog post is on the way in the next few days that will detail recovery work and other course happenings as we move into September.

Wade