I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are set for the New Year lets hope it's a drier year. With it being the Christmas holidays we have only had a skeleton staff out checking the courses daily plus with having over 40mm of rain in the last week and a half we have left any cutting as not to cause damage to soft surfaces but today with things drying up we cut greens, changed holes, moved tee markers and raked bunkers on the Balcomie course and Rolled greens, raked bunkers and moved tee markers on the Craighead course.  

 Verti-draining of the tees to a depth of 9" then all cut was completed on the Balcomie course, the holes changed after the slit tining on the greens and greens and tees cut/divoted on the Craighead course

 After the path was made through our gorse at the 18th we burnt the gorse that was pulled out before the adverse weather hits us

 The 3rd bunker completed all we need to do is extend the drain in the bottom and then fill with sand

 Coastal clean up finished until the next time

 Rain is due later in the week so we brought forward plans of slit tining greens & surrounds, cutting greens & surrounds on the Balcomie course from Thursday to this afternoon

 The landing area on the 5th fairway on the Balcomie course after we cleaned up all the debris washed up from the high tides, hopefully this deep verti-draining will help reduce surface capping and allow to drain better, then we started to verti-drain tees again

A local contractor was back in continuing with making a path through the gorse at 18th for a path to the erosion project at rear of 17th green

 More damage on Saturday night from high tides

 The clean up begins today

 At last we were back working at the 3rd bunker on the Craighead course

All we need to do now is add soil to surrounding areas to fit in with new bunker face then start turfing. Other jobs were to turf iron greens and rake bunkers and move tee markers.

 Today we were welcomed by damage and debris from high tides which has affected holes 2,3,4,5,14 & 15 on the Balcomie course, so next week will be clean up time and hopefully no lasting damage to the turf

Yesterday I attended a workshop on golf course irrigation design at Elmwood, which has helped me understand more about this subject in detail. Jobs back on the courses have been cutting/trimming gorse back and painting areas in the shed as we are still having adverse weather.

 With the weather being better we are back rebuilding the 3rd greenside bunker on the Craighead course, for safety we have put the pin on the winter green

 Another job started today is the new path to the 1st fairway on the Balcomie course which should make it alot safer for the golfers in wet or damp conditions, other jobs were to cut & turf iron greens just to help clean & smooth off the surface as its been nearly 2 weeks since there last cut

 Most of the week we have been on winter greens on the Craighead course because of the frost and ice

 Work has started on rebuilding the 3rd rear greenside bunker on the Craighead course

 Drainage work on the 8th Fairway Craighead course has been stopped until the ground thaws

 With the adverse weather we have nearly completed all the insulation work to our paint room and cleaning/painting of the mess room and my office.Other jobs have been to start gorse cutting and gritting of the road to Clubhouse and car parks

Hopefully the weather improves to allow us to carry on with our winter work projects

 This week we have been busy re building the face on the 2nd greenside bunker, re-turfing the worn area on the 12th greenside bunker and edging out the other 12th bunker by 2 foot to make it easier to rake and play out of, hand weeding the Balcomie greens and slit tining the drier fairways as its been to wet to carryout drainage which we are hoping to start again tomorrow

 Another 15mm of rain yesterday which tested out our drainage project at hole 18 on the Balcomie course with good results thank god

 We carried out gravel banding above an old drain on the 6th surround on the Balcomie course which should help keep this area drier

 2nd greenside bunker completed

With more rain yesterday we carried on with more insulation work in the shed. other jobs were to cut and turf iron greens, change holes and move/divot tee markers and rake bunkers on both courses ready for the weekend

 With over 25mm of rain on Monday we had to close both courses first thing then we managed to get the Balcomie course open at 10.30am so we were making a start to replacing and adding extra insulation under the flooring above the office, drying room and mess room this will hopefully help reduce heating costs

 We had to chase sheep off the course as they never paid there green fees

 Today we managed to get back to our drainage project at the 18th on the Balcomie course as it was dry enough

 Back filling with pea gravel then finally with sand on top, these drainage lines will be seeded and top-dressed in the spring

 The Balcomie fairways being sprayed with soluble iron

 11th right hand greenside bunker on the Balcomie course being rebuilt

 2nd left hand greenside bunker being rebuilt

 We have had a local contractor in cutting down an area of gorse at the 18th hole on the Balcomie course as this area will be used as a dumping area for up to 300 tons of stones for our erosion project at the coastline rear of the 17th green plus a road way to and from the road to the 17th area so not to cause to much damage to the golf course and an added bonus of gorse maintenance to this area as the gorse was getting very tall and leggy so was needing cut back

 18th drainage project completed, view from the Clubhouse

View from the Clubhouse of gorse area that was cut back. Other jobs have been touching up bunkers and moving tee markers daily, slit tininig the Balcomie fairways before spraying and putting out the winter pins and flags

 Today we were still working away at the drainage project at hole 18 on the Balcomie course, the mini hopper has been a godsend for back filling the trenches with the pea gravel it's at least 50% quicker and less labour to back fill than by hand, hopefully by the middle of next week this job will be completed weather permitting

Balcomie course- all bunkers raked, tee markers moved and divoted, greens cut and turf ironed, balls collected off driving range, more edging/cleaning  up of path from 18th to car park and made a start again to slit tining fairways after break

Craighead course- greens rolled, tee markers moved and divoted, bunkers raked, 11th fairway divoted and starter hut area edged and tidied up