Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and all the best for 2014 from the Green staff

 The tee paths at 7, 8 and the burn crossing on hole 12 have had the repair work completed on the Balcomie course

 Drainage lines on holes 6 & 18 on the Balcomie course have been heavily top-dressed again to achieve a firm and smooth surface

The new 18th tee path has roughly been shaped out ready for the turf sides to create the desirable shape. Other jobs have been raking bunkers daily, divoting tees & fairways and carrying out any cutting required

Aeration work on the Balcomie course

Today we started our aeration plans for the greens, tees & walkways on the Balcomie course in the way of slit tining and verti-draining. After the greens were slit tined they were cut and rolled to help smooth the surface

Path ends at tees 7 & 8 are being improved by using rubber matting to help stop wear and tear especially from our machinery

With the mild weather we have had to cut/clean/blow and rake bunkers on the Craighead course

4th green side on the Balcomie course rebuilt

11th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course rebuilt

12th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course rebuilt



 Damage along the coastline on the Balcomie course from the high tides

 digging out all the drain outfalls which were covered up by sand and seaweed

fairway bunkers left on hole 11 of the Balcomie course are getting rebuilt, other tasks were to slit tine fairways and continue to work on tee 18 after the Craighead course was set up for play

 This week the Craighead course is on it's 2nd week of closure so our plans were top-dressing the tees, rubbing in and slit tining greens and fairways. With the hard frost today we took the chance to start our gorse maintenance program

 On the Balcomie course was daily course set up then work on the new extension to the 18th tee which is 36m2

 ready for turf

 Today our main job was to clean up all the debris that was washed up by the high tides along holes 2,3,4,5,14 & 15 on the Balcomie course last night luckily we only had slight damage to the coastline plus 3 pins snapped

The burn outfall had to be dugout after being covered by sand and seaweed

 This week we have been mini-coring/cleaning up/double verti-cutting/cutting and top-dressing the Craighead course greens

 14th green completed with very little disturbance to the playing surfaces

 Also we have slit tined all the Craighead course fairways again, other tasks has been cleaning up drainage works, re planting trees that were moved for the drainage works. On the Balcomie course tasks have been to carry out course set up ie roll greens or dewy brush, rake bunkers daily and divot tees

Both David's and I took part in Movember to help raise money and thankfully it was not too windy to blow any off

Balcomie course- closed today due to a hard frost so jobs were to drain down the irrigation systems for the winter and divot fairways
Craighead course - open on winter greens, jobs were to top- up drainage lines with sand before machine goes off site tomorrow, drain down toilet block and reshaping the rear of the 17th bunker with the spoil going to the 18th tee extension on the Balcomie course

This week the drainage contractors have finally managed to break through all the rock and finish the drainage project so now they are onto the last part of the project and that is to extend and raise the existing mound by the 6th tees, the reason for this is to help reduce the noise level from the local Kart club. With the Balcomie course on it's winter closure this week we have been out slit tining fairways, rebuilding the 11th fairway bunker, reducing a mound on the 17th fairway to make it easier to cut and improve play and top-dressing greens and surrounds.

today we carried out deep hollow coring to a depth of 6" to our putting green the reason for this is to reduce the heavy soil profile and in time make the profile more of a sandy loam to help reduce compaction, flooding, encourage deeper rooting and a more similar putting surface like the greens on the Balcomie course.

Drainage works were going really well till we hit rock which has slowed the digging down so we have hired a rock picker attachment for the digger to break through to get the correct levels for the drain line, the drain track across fairway 3 and semi-rough at hole 4 has been back filled, tramped, rolled and re-turfed. With concentrating on drainage the 17th bunker has taken second priority but is nearing completion now.Other tasks have been to divot the fairways on the Craighead course and replace any of the D valves in our greens sprinkler heads which allow us to manually operate the heads

 Back filling main drain across the 3rd fairway

Digging main drain along by the 6th tees

Drainage works are still on going, the 17th bunker face is completed it's just all the surrounding areas to be completed and we have slit tined greens, surrounds and fairways on the Craighead course. Yesterday all the staff were at a demo day by Turfco at Crail on our driving range, they were demoing top-dressers and seeders

 Our first frost of the winter which meant closing the Balcomie course till 10am and opening the back 9 of the Craighead course on winter greens till 10am to allow play

 With the Craighead course on it's winter closure we have in a local Stonemason repairing some of our dyke's

Drainage works on the Craighead course coming on great with all the gravel banding completed so now it's carrying on laying the 6" mains pipe