11th greenside bunker rebuilt on the Balcomie course 

Replacing our old worn brushes on our fairway brush 

Fairways being brushed when dry to help lift the grass and disperse wormcasts 

Tees and surrounds on the Craighead course have been solid tined down to 150mm to relieve compaction and aid in drainage through the profile 

Surface after the soild tining 

Surrounds being solid tined then after theses areas were all cut to clean up the surfaces 

The Craighead fairways have all been slit tined to relieve compaction, this will be continued through the winter months 

 

With having our first storm of the winter, we had over 68mm of rain over a 2 day period 

The Chestnut paling has really helped regenerate the dunes along hole 2 of the Balcomie course with great recovery 

The Craighead greens have been sand injected again to help reduce our thatch levels and firm up the surfaces 

Then the greens were very little verti-cut and blown to clean/the surfaces up before rolling etc and the greens back in play with very little disturbance to the surfaces 

We carried out slightly more aeration works to the Craighead greens 6, 13, 18 & PG to take out more thatch before sand injecting 

Core holes, these will close up in the next couple of weeks with minimum disturbance to the surfaces, but will allow the greens to drain better  

1st greenside bunker at hole 16 of the Craighead course being rebuilt 

The newly built bunker is slightly larger to make it easier to rake, the front face is also slightly higher to help reduce the amount of balls running off the green into this bunker 

Work has started to install Trackman on our driving range 

Digging out the bases for both radars, then trenching for the ducting to hold all the data and power cables 

Trenching for radar 1 out front on the driving range 

Concrete pads for radar 1 & 2 and trenches being backfilled and turfed 

Pulling in all the power and data cables required for Trackman from the radars to the screens in the driving range bays 

Rebuilding of the 2nd greenside bunker at hole 16 of the Craighead course 

We have started work to building the new putting green next to our new driving range building, we are shaping the base and trenching round the area to put in irrigation pipework and sprinklers 

With the Craighead course irrigation system now drained for the winter, we have replaced the worn out sprinklers on the 5th green tee and the 16th green, this will give us better water coverage to these areas 

Through the winter months we will bring in the Craighead course tee stones and power wash and re-glue the plaques and replace any old plaques needing attention 

 

Greens aeration

The Balcomie course greens have been mini-cored in 2 ways to take out thatch 

Then the greens were blown/cleared up then verti-cutting and cut 

We then started to sand inject the greens to inject more sand into the profile 

Then the greens were spiked and seeded to make extra holes for the seed 

Profile of the sand injected 

surface spiked and seeded 

Seed rubbed into the holes before the sand top-dressing 

Greens being top-dressed with sand to backfill the holes and cover the seed 

Sand and seed dragged into the profile 

After the rubbing in etc we gave the greens a very slow roll 

Greens were watered in to wash the sand into the surface 

Fairways have been sprayed with iron over both courses to aid recovery and add colour 

We are trialling prisms on certain holes on our flags on the Craighead course 

We are starting to repair worn areas on tee walkways etc on the Balcomie course 

re-turfing and matting worn areas onto certain tees 

We have made a start to our winter work programs with rebuilding the 11th greenside bunker (RHS) on the Balcomie course 

Tee paths being edged & weeded 

11th greenside bunker (LHS) on the Balcomie