With more rain forecast tomorrow, I thought I would do a trial with our verti-drainer at different depths on the 13th green on the Craighead course, to see the difference as this should help reduce the flooding we are seeing with this continuous rain that we have been getting since mid November

 A Merry Christmas from all the staff at Crail Golfing Society

 This week has been just a skeleton staff out to carry out the daily courses set up etc and we managed to complete the turfing at the new banks at our dump area at tee 12 on the Craighead course another job that was completed was to extend, re-turf and lay rubber matting at  the walkway to the 14th winter tee on the Balcomie course this will make this area neater and less chance of wear and tear

I was along helping out the Anstruther golf course this week, carrying out deep aeration to their greens

 Both fairway bunkers completed on the Balcomie course

 We are continuing to deep hollow core the putting green at the Clubhouse to help improve drainage and root depth, we only complete half the area each time to leave an area for play

 With the weather being so wet it made sense to stay away from main playing areas and utilise old turf that we are striping from the 11th wall area and turf the banks round our dump area at tee 12 on the Craighead course

 This week is the last mid week closure for the Balcomie course this year, so the plans were to dig out and rebuild both fairway bunkers at hole 8, we have reused all the spoil from these bunkers at the new tee path at hole 4

 the 2nd green side bunker rebuilt on the Craighead course

 With getting slightly better weather we have taken the chance to top-dress the Balcomie course tees to help reduce thatch levels and improve the surfaces

 Our rough management plans are still on going with harrowing the roughs that were cut and collected, this is to help rip into the base of the plant to help thin these areas out

This week I attended a course walk at Scotscraig golf club organised by BIGGA to see all the new changes that are being carried out this winter by Chris and the team

 Despite the weather the green staff have been really busy keeping up with our winter projects and we even managed another slit tine and top-dressing on the greens and surrounds on the Balcomie course

 4th green side bunker on the Balcomie course being rebuilt

 2nd fairway bunker being rebuilt plus we have re-turfed the surrounding areas as was worn on the Balcomie course

 We have started to build a tee path from the lower medal tee at hole 4 on the Balcomie course this will allow golfers to safely walk along the coastline to the fairway instead off walking up by the 3rd green which should also help speed up play slightly, this project will be on going into next year

 We have applied a winter fertiliser at low rate to the Craighead course greens as they were looking weak so the fertiliser will help harden the plant up going into the winter

 The Craighead course tees were cut and top-dressed again to help fill in the core holes, produce a better surface and improve surface drainage

 The dyke builder that was in has completed the section which was budgeted for at hole 11 on the Craighead course and he will be back this time next year to do another section

 Both courses have held up well to all this rain we have been having

The monthly task of cleaning/blowing the car parks was completed this week

 We are on the last mid week closure for the Craighead course this year, so we had in a drainage contractor in working at the semi-rough area in front of tees 9 & 18

 We are trying out the Shockwave aerator on any areas that we have carried out drainage works over the last few years to help open up the surface and to allow the water/air movement down to the drains

 Minimal disturbance to the surface from the Shockwave and as you can see we have been continuously heavy sand top-dressing these areas to help produce a smooth firm surface and blend the drainage lines in

 The guys are rebuilding the front right green side bunker at hole 16

 This week it's the Craighead course mid week closure so the plans were to carry out more aeration work to the greens, surrounds and fairways this week, certain surrounds were hollow cored & heavy top-dressed with a bigger tines to help improve firmness

 All the greens and surrounds were mini hollow cored with a 11mm tine, cleaned up, verti-cut then cut to help control thatch levels which will in turn give us better draining greens etc

 Then the greens & surrounds etc were lightly top-dressed and rubbed in before vibrate rolling them

 The green side bunker at hole 7 has been rebuild, this bunker has a lot of traffic so this rebuild is carried out every 2 to 3 years

We have a dry stone dyker contractor in when the course is closed to rebuild the 11th wall from the fairway back down to the tees. With the Balcomie course being open its was just course set up each morning and any cutting etc required to keep things neat & tidy

 Since the start of November we have had just over 110mm of rain which has seen all our new drains work well on the Craighead course

 We have extended the rubber matting at the rear of the 6th tees on the Balcomie course to save the area getting muddy and slippy in this weather and throughout the winter months

 Both green side bunkers left at hole 3 have been rebuilt on the Balcomie course

 With all this rain we have had an issue with the car park drains starting to bubble up next to our putting green at the Clubhouse so we put in a new 25m drain into the gorse area rear of the 14th tees

5th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt