Storm damage

Today we came into work to major coastal damage and flooding, both courses were closed, it was another 31 mil of rain Par 3 13th Craighead course

9th green Craighead course

2nd coastline Balcomie course

2nd coastline Balcomie course

4th Fairway Balcomie course

5th Fairway Balcomie course

5th Fairway Balcomie course

Bloody weather

We have had 27mm of rain which has caused lots of flooding throughout the course on a positive note all our top-dressing which was carried out yesterday is well washed in now

Today's jobs were to cut greens with triple, rake bunkers, cut tees, divot tees, collect balls, top up ball dispenser, over seed tees, top-dress tees, rub in top-dressing and screening sand for bunkers

Holes made by the front spiked roller on seeder

Top-dressing with Lv20 sand

5th tee after seeded, top-dressed and rubbed in

Screening sand to take out any stones etc

7th green side topped up with new sand

1st green side bunker topped up with new sand

16mm of rain overnight

A new hose point fitted at tees 12

We used bricks under the box so not to put any weight on pipeline

We have had slight flooding to the usual areas, jobs to day were raking bunkers, replacing greens sprinkler head on hole 9, fix failed decoder on surround 7,moved tee markers, we have not cut greens this week as we fertilised them on Monday, changed holes, replaced any torn/tattie flags and drove into the shed a delivery of top-dressing sand for the tees and aprons

Scottie and I were out with the rotaries cutting the areas at 1st tee, round about, driving range tee bank and another few areas out on the course after break, then I had a staff meeting at 2pm

Today we checked all greens & surround sprinkler heads worked on automatic which we found 4 faults a failed decoder on surround 7, sprinkler not turning off on green 9 and surrounds 2 & 3 coming on instead of greens 2 & 3 heads

Other jobs today were to rake bunkers, move tee markers, level and turf area round 12th irrigation box, start topping any semi-rough, fertilise weak areas and walkways with Scott's (25.5.13) slow release and also to dig out the irrigation pipe at the 12th tees so we can put a hose point in for hand watering the closest hose point is more than 40m away

Here is an access point to the course at the 6th fairway which the gate has had to be replaced because of vandalism with a new metal gate hopefully this will last a lot longer

Today we cut greens, fertilised the greens with a 4.0.10+10Fe at half rate to help check the moss and help perk up the greens, watered in fert straight away if not you will get black foot prints from the iron once golfers play other jobs today were to move tee markers clean up any rubbish that had blown over the course after the high winds on Friday and we started to water new turf

Today we had planned to fertilise greens but it's very windy so I have not bothered, so we carried on with cutting bunker faces, cut greens no perimeter cut, changed holes moved markers, empty bins, raked bunkers, sweeped winter mats and refill hole at 17th sprinkler as it's fixed and no leaks. there's rain due so I'm going to miss hand watering this morning

17th green sprinkler had a cracked casing that holds in the D valve which was causing it not to switch off

The newly turfed 9th yellow tee had it's first cut at 15mm with the hand mower, light top-dressing, fertilised then watered

This is the full amount of clippings that came off the tees after scarifying etc

All the fairways have had their first cut of the year, other jobs today were to fertilise all new turf areas, water all new turf areas, cut surrounds and start to flymo bunkers

Jobs today were to rake all bunkers, check tee markers, collect balls from the driving range, top up ball dispenser, cut driving range and areas round putting green and bunker area when these jobs are carried out the range is closed. the putting green was cut then fertilised with a 4.0.10+10fe to help kill off the moss. after break we made a start to the 1st cut on the fairways this year and hand watering new turf areas

Today's jobs were to slit tine greens to a depth of 5"then cut behind to smooth off surface and to complete the double scarifying and verti-cutting on the tees

Slit tine marks before cutting

Today we are 2 men down Rab is over helping on the Balcomie course and Andy is off with a sprained ankle, so jobs today were to rake green side bunkers, water new turf, set up scarifying units to a depth of 7mm and set up the verti-cut units to a depth of 1mm then start double scarifying and verti-cutting tees. after break all the staff had their photo's taken for Clubhouse notice board

This is the amount of clippings taken out of 1 set of tees

Tee after a double scarify

A tee getting a double verti-cut after the scarifying this really tidies up any mess. We managed to complete 10 sets of tees today, I'm hoping the weather stays dry to complete the rest tomorrow

the 3rd tee completed ready for play

Weekend work

This weekend it's Scottie and I out on duty, there was a slight white frost that came in with the daylight but thawed by 7.30am, our jobs today were to move tee markers rake any bunkers that had golfer and animal marks on both courses and I have just finished in time for a greens committee meeting and course walk at 9am

Watering the new turf on tee 9

Scottie cutting greens at HOC 5mm but no perimeter cut

The clippings off all 18 greens

That's us finished edging and reshaping sand in all bunkers 88 in total

Other jobs this week were to rake bunkers 3 times Mon, Wed and Fri, move tee markers, empty tee bins, shut down all hose point valves and prime up irrigation system as we have been out hand watering the new turf to stop it drying out it looks like we have only got 1 sprinkler head sticking and no leaks yet fingers crossed, changed holes, stimped greens which they are running at 9', looked at core samples from the greens for root depth, thatch and moister, Verti-drained all par 3 fairways and fairways 2, 3, 4 and divoted tees we are trying out Bar Fairway seed in our divot mix as it Germinates in lower temperatures and this will be the seed used for over seeding the tees this year

Here's Andy slit tining fairways, he managed to complete fairways 7 to 16 today

1st green after being sprayed with liquid iron

We dug down to the drain on the 5th surround to find out why we get flooding and we found out that heavy clay was put back on top of the pipe and gravel so this was taken away and replaced with sandy soil hopefully this will allow the rain water to drain away quicker and if so we will repeat this for the full length of the drainage line

We replaced the old worn tines on the verti-drainer this morning before verti-draining all walkways again. Other jobs this week so far have been to rake bunkers, roll greens, spray surrounds and tees with liquid iron and finish off coring the tees which I'm hoping to start scarifying, seeding and topdressing next week