The golfers are gone, the course is closed, now all that is left for Port Royal superintendent Steve Johnson and his team is preparation.

For the next five days they will fill in holes, repair pitch marks, tend to greens and bunkers and generally make sure that when the Grand Slam begins on Monday with the Pro-Am, the course is immaculate.

There isn't much major work to be done. That's taken place over the last six months. It's all about maintain the course and working with the PGA to determine the final set-up.

"We're ahead of the curve at the moment, everything's where we want it," said Johnson. "The green speeds are where the PGA want them, the fairways are good, the tees are good, the playing conditions are good.

"The staff are motivated and they're all keen, which is a good thing.

"Now it's just a matter of cleaning up after the storm we've had. We've been on a cutting programme now for the last three weeks, cutting greens seven days a week, so it's just a case of keeping that in place, maintaining it, and a little bit of finessing here and there.

"The course is shut, which will help let it all settle in, and let a few of the areas grow back, but it also lets us get on top of filling in fairways and repairing pitch marks on greens."

The big thing though for Johnson is making sure that the speed of the greens is absolutely right, and weather conditions mean that is something that can change from day to day.

"The thing with the greens here is that they are new, and at the moment we are double-cutting them, and rolling, but we really are pushing them, and they are very young.

"And also then on the back of the Grand Slam we have to have them ready to go through a long winter, and a lot of them are only five months old, but the PGA are quite respectful of that.

"The final green speeds really will be determined by weather conditions. We don't want to get the greens too quick because if the wind picks up then some of the exposed greens, like on seven, eight and 16, will become unplayable, and that's not what we want.

"If it's a still day we'll cut more, and roll more, and pick the speeds up. We've got a target that we are working towards, and we are on that, and as we get close to the day we'll go up or down depending on the climate."

It's been a long build-up for next week's event, and Johnson, like his ground staff is looking forward to a well deserved rest once the Grand Slam is over.

"The crew are doing a fantastic job. Half the crew are from the old golf course, but there are a lot of new guys as well, and they have all gone through an awful lot in the past 20 months.

"There are some weary tired legs and bodies out there, but they all understand that it comes down to next week, and this is where it all counts.

"But they have done a fantastic job and everyone should be proud of them, and they should all be proud of themselves."