Solheim given new green look

Ground staff were forced to spray dye on the greens at Loch Lomond yesterday to improve the look of the turf before the start of the Solheim Cup tomorrow.

Ground staff were forced to spray dye on the greens at Loch Lomond yesterday to improve the look of the turf before the start of the Solheim Cup tomorrow.

The problem caused the club's president, Lyle Anderson, to issue an open letter of apology to both the teams and the Solheim family, who founded what has become the most prestigious event in women's professional golf. Anderson blamed "human error" for too much herbicide being applied to the greens in July to control meadow grass.

"We treated only 14 of 18 holes on the course plus the putting green," he said. "In preparing for the application of a herbicide, we made an error, a human error, by incorrectly measuring the strength of the herbicide. Immediately upon recognition, every possible effort has been made to restore the treated greens to playing condition."

One of the greens that got the full treatment was the 12th, where crews went end to end spraying the brownish, patchy surface an emerald green to match the lush fairways and hillsides. "They've done a lot of painting," said Dottie Pepper, of the United States, who has played in all five previous Solheim Cups.

Meanwhile, the European team was yesterday ready to give a dramatic late call-up to Catriona Matthew, after Sweden's Helen Alfredsson injured her wrist when she fell getting into a bus earlier in the week.