Not long until the season starts

Fairways & semi-roughs over both courses have had their first cut getting ready for the season a head 

Thank you to the volunteers that helped the Green staff fully divot the Craighead fairways, this helps having these filled with sand/soil & seed ready for the warmer weather to help recovery on our fairways after a busy winter period  

We have striped our 14th tee on the Balcomie course so it can be re-leved and new turf put down to help with wear and tear of this par 3 tee  

turf being laid 

Tee completed, hopefully this will be back in play by end of April once the turf has knitted in 

We have managed another sand injection to our Craighead course greens before the season starts to help dilute the thatch levels 

You can see the sand injection through the profile, this will also help with air and water movement 

That's both our irrigation systems pressurised up for the season, staff have been out checking on each sprinkler for running correctly  

Any new turf areas are being watered to help stop the turf from drying out, also the dyke has been rebuilt/repaired along the left of hole 12 of the Craighead course 

Once the Craighead greens were sand injected we have applied their Spring fertiliser to help with sand injection recovery and also any recovery from all the winter play 

We have been making our own tee signs again this winter to help with navigation round our courses 

The 3rd (LHS) bunker has been rebuilt on the Balcomie course, we are hoping to rebuild the other (LHS) bunker before the start of the season to complete the bunker work on this hole 

 

What has been happening on the courses🦽

To help smooth the Balcomie course greens off after the verti-draining, we have been slowly rolling the surfaces then we applied a little liquid fertiliser and iron to help the plant and deter moss 

The right hand side greenside bunker on hole 2 of the Balcomie course has been rebuilt

The green tee on hole 9 on the Craighead course has been re-levelled and extended to give us more playing area 

The greenside bunker short right of hole 3 on the Balcomie course being rebuilt 

The 8th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

We have been back out with our new sand injection machine on the Craighead course greens to help dilute the thatch levels and in the background the fairways have been cut then sprayed with iron to help add colour and deter moss 

Profile with the sand injected down to 150mm

We have started to edge/weed the bunkers on the Craighead course ready for the start of the season 

With having the irrigation system drained for frost protection, it's the ideal time to replace the worn old sprinklers on the Craighead course 

This shows the profile after the green was verti-drained, this allows better air and water movement, allows roots to develop and reduces compaction on these areas 

We have dug out all the old gorse, Broom and stones at the left hand side of fairway 12 of the Craighead course and now we are shaping up the ground and this area will be turfed then topped at 3.5" height of cut going forward to keep this area much tidier, In March the dyke will be getting repaired and certain areas rebuilt 

 

into the new year

The Balcomie course greens have been deep solid tined to a depth of 175mm to relieve compaction and aid in drainage and air movement

Then the greens were slowly turf ironed to help smooth the surfaces off 

Cutting and collecting deep roughs has been on going through the winter months over both courses to help thin these areas out 

Once the deep rough areas have been cut & collected we have carried on topping these areas to keep them under control going into the new season 

Both greenside bunkers right of green 3 on the Craighead course have been rebuilt 

Completed bunkers 

We have dug a trench and laid ducting down to a depth of 500mm to allow us to put electric into the Balcomie course starters hut 

9th green tee on the Craighead course has been extended and re-levelled to allow more teeing ground 

With the hard frost we just had, this was a great opportunity to get out and cut back gorse areas especially on the Craighead course 

Other adverse weather jobs were to paint the Balcomie course tee markers & start to paint the tee posts 

We also painted our hallway in the Greenkeeping shed, edged/trimmed round all our irrigation boxes over both courses and painted OB & irrigation posts 

 

 

The winter work program

The winter work program is going well. the 12th bunker just short of the green on the Craighead course being rebuilt 

Replacing the old worn out tee sprinkler at the 2nd green tee on the Craighead course, this tee should be re-turfed before Xmas, we have extended the playing area to help cope with play and re-levelled the surface  

Cutting the greens to tidy up the surfaces, the cutting heights for our greens are now at 5.5mm to help reduce stress on the plant going through the winter months  

The walkway onto our 14th tee on the Balcomie course has been re-turfed and matting laid to help wear and tear on this area 

We have extended the matted path going onto our 1st fairway on the Balcomie course to help wear and tear 

The fairway bunker on our 1st hole of the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

The left hand side bunker at green 2 of the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

When possible we have been out brushing fairways to help disperse the worm casts 

Adverse weather tasks have been to start to wash, rub down and repaint our tee benches over both courses 

Both our irrigation systems have been drained down for the winter to stop any pipe, joint or sprinkler damage from frosts 

The large greenside bunker on hole 17 of the Craighead course has now been fully rebuilt 

The 2nd fairway bunker on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

The surrounds of the bunker have been reshaped and turfed to fit in 

Tees over both courses have been solid tined to a depth of 125mm with a 19mm tine to relieve compaction and aid in drainage and air movement 

Fairways over both courses have been slit tined to relieve compaction to a depth of 125mm, we have been taking advantage of the good weather to catch up on this type of aeration work due to we struggled last winter with it being so wet to get machinery out on the courses