February courses update

Greens on the Balcomie course being sprayed with a liquid winter hardener to help the plant, the last 6 weeks has been a real struggle with the very wet weather, we have now had over 201mm of rainfall for the first 7 weeks of this year, which in turn has resulted in course closures on certain days, but glad to report we are back fully open  

We have placed over 40tons of rock along our coastline at hole 14 of the Balcomie course to help against coastal erosion, this rock was excavated out from where we are building our new driving range performance hub, great to be able to use this rock   

14th coastline

With the hard rock engineering works completed at the rear of 15th tees & 17th green on the Balcomie course and with the contractors off site, its time to repair the track that was used to drive in the 2000tons of rock and baskets etc

The track and tee path has been resurfaced, edges re-turfed and all raked out etc, this work will be ongoing and we are hoping to complete this work for going into the new season 

Path works and turfing completed round the 18th tee area

Path at rear of the 18th tee coming from 17th green works completed

2 weeks ago David Snodgrass (Head Golf Professional) and myself (Bob Meikle - Golf Course Manager) held a presentations day at the club to our members talking about what is happening in our departments and what's been happing on the courses with the erosion works and our rebuilding of bunkers & tees program, it's great to communicate all this information and get feedback, so please look out for the next presentation as well worth popping along 

We have rebuilt the large greenside bunker in front of green 9 of the Balcomie course 

shaping and base layers going in 

new face built and surrounds starting to be re-turfed after re-shaping was completed 

The bunker will get sand added before being opened for play when the season starts, this will also allow all the new turf to be established and knit in

We have been adding more small gabion baskets along our 15th tee path on the Balcomie course, this is to help add a little more coastal protection and act as a little barrier for buggies etc 

The Railway sleeper work and tee bin at hole 18 of the Balcomie course has all been repainted 

We have rebuilt the 13th greenside bunker on the Balcomie course 

Jake & Owen putting the final turfs on the face before shaping and turfing round 

ongoing sprinkler replacement on green & surround at hole 12 of the Craighead course 

rebuilding of the 1st greenside bunker right of the green on the Balcomie course 

All the newly built bunkers will be out of play until they knit in and have sand added 

Work is progressing well on our new performance hub project at the driving range, the pad foundations being built ready to be concreted, this is despite the very wet weather 

All the steel rebar being built up for the foundations etc, there is a lot of extra work going into the foundations as we are such a windy site 

The re-routing of the irrigation and mains water pipes progressing well with the pipework being fusion welded 

 

Catching up on cutting when conditions allow 

5 of us have been getting refresher 3 day training on safe use of pesticides and boom spraying 

14th tee path on the Craighead course has been extended closer to the yellow/white tee as this area is a bottle neck and suffers with wear and tear 

18th bunker on the Balcomie course being rebuilt 

Newly built bunkers on the Balcomie course being topped up with fresh sand, this allows the fresh sand to settle before going into play at the start of the new season 

Craighead course greens being solid tined down to a depth of 175mm to help with drainage and air movement through the profile 

First week in January saw very hard frost then rain on top, with the ground being solid the rain had nowhere to go, very unusual for us to have frost nearly 150mm in the ground 

Adverse weather jobs were rubbing down and painting tee markers and benches etc 

Work has progressed well on our erosion project at rear of 15th tees & 17th green on the Balcomie course, the green staff have been adding soil and turfing above the new gabion baskets that were installed, this will give a much nature finish once grown in 

turf going down

Contractors have done a great job carrying out this repair work

The contractors have now completed the erosion repair works and now the green staff will come in behind them to clean up the track that was used to bring in the 2000tons of rock, this work should be completed for the new season (weather pending) 

We have been back filling the new chestnut paling fencing to help secure it into the dune system along hole 2 of the Balcomie course 

We have now started our next project of getting the area on the driving range ready for Contractors to come onsite to start the new Performance hub, we have dug away the old putting green and lifted the turf which was reused on the erosion project and turfing the 18th carry at the gorse on the Balcomie course 

Contractors came onsite 5th January and work is going very well despite the weather  

foundations being dug out for the new building 

 

Winter work update

We have completed work to the bottom tee on hole 6 of the Balcomie course, this tee was re-levelled and re-turfed 

We have been demoing fairway brushes to see if they will help with dispersing wormcasts as this is becoming a big problem with all chemical controls off the market in the last few years, not only is it a problem for golfers balls/trollies and foot wear, it causes major problems to our cutting machinery with clogging up the reels, blunting blades and making a mess etc

The greenside bunker left on hole 1 of the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

All greens & PG's over both courses have been sprayed with a liquid winter pack and fungicide to help protect the plant 

We continue to replace any problematic sprinklers on the Craighead course to allow us to have better water coverage going into next season 

We have rebuilt the 15th greenside bunker on the Balcomie course 

We have rebuilt the 12th greenside bunker on the Craighead course 

We have slabbed the area round the 13th tee bench on the Balcomie course as this area was getting worn out, this will keep this areas much tidier and no worn areas 

work is well under way of raking into our cut deep rough areas over both our courses to help rip into the crown of the grass to help thin these areas out going into next season 

The area at the 18th carry on the Balcomie course has had the gorse cut back, then the roots dug out, soil added then the area re-turfed, this is to help reduce the length of the carry off the tee, the area left of the path will be cut back also in the coming months 

Mother nature is sure catching up with rainfall in the last few weeks from such a dry Summer, we have already had 88mm of rain in December 

We have completed work to our dune system that runs along hole 2 of the Balcomie course, which consisted of soft engineering works of digging a trench to house a chestnut paling fence to help trap sand the stabilise our dunes along this area and in turn will help the Marram and Sea Lyme grasses grow down this section 

fencing being installed 

fencing being backfilled 

Erosion works at rear of the 15th tee and 17th green on the Balcomie course is going well and on time so far, the company has to work with the tides 

Gabion baskets have been installed and additional rock armour placed at the toe of the new baskets 

This work is going really well to help protect our course going forward at these problem areas 

Congratulations to Scottie one of our senior greenkeepers on completing his SVQ level 7 into management, this course was delivered by Rick at St Andrews Management Centre, the Club have built up a long and standing relationship with this company with other staff members from all departments gaining more qualifications over the years to help and support us carrying out our duties 

The Balcomie course greens and some walkways etc have been deep solid tined to help drainage and better water and air movement through the profile and relieve compaction 

a 19mm solid tine going down to a depth of 175mm 

                                          Then the greens were very slowly rolled to help smooth the surfaces off