I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit the Levenseat quarry where we get some of our sands, top-dressings and divot mixes from, this was organised through BIGGA

 before the tour of the premises etc we had a talk on all the processes that is involved from the start to the finished products that arrives at our courses

 This week we have started our deep aeration program to parts of the putting green outside the Clubhouse to help exchange the heavy soil with sand which in turn will reduce flooding and hopefully produce a smoother, firmer and faster putting surface which should be more like our greens on the courses

 We have left nearly half of the putting green to allow for play then once this side has recovered we will repeat on other side

 The guys working the sand down the deep hollow cored holes

 Another task this week was to fertilise all walkways and weak areas over both courses with a slow release fertiliser

From next week we will be at our full cutting program for the season

 This weekend we are holding the Battle Trophy which is a 72 hole Open strokeplay championship on the Craighead course, so we have been carrying out extra cutting to all areas plus turf ironing greens to help gain a smoother and faster surface

 checking speeds before and after the cutting and ironing of the greens

 We laid matting down to protect the teeing grounds during practice rounds

 Once the dew had lifted the course looked at it's best - hole 10 of the Craighead course

D Young was the winner with 71- 71- 70 - 67 total 279 which was great scoring as the weather was on their sides with only slight winds today

 The staff getting all surfaces cut on the Craighead course ready for the weekend as we are holding the Battle Trophy

 fairways being finished off

The new matting has worked well at the 12th hole at the burn bridge on the Balcomie course

 On Wednesday with the calm morning it was perfect to cut greens and surrounds and then apply our spring fertiliser to the Balcomie course greens

The Craighead greens getting their first cut with boxes off since they were fertilised on Monday

 This week is to apply our spring fertiliser to the Craighead course greens & surrounds

 then a good soaking

 We have put up a new fence at tee 14 to help spread the wear on the walkway on and off the tee which we can alter by adding or removing the chain

Starting to drop the height of cut on our newly turfed tees

 It's a farewell to Rab who is taking up a new position at another local Club and we all wish him the best in his career

 A welcome to Greg who is taking up Rab's position

 Our first hand cut on the Craighead greens this season

 One of our last tidy up jobs going into the season is painting the starters hut, toilet block and 15th storm hut on the Craighead course

First cut on our newly rebuilt bunkers nearing ready for play next week. Other tasks this week was to cut all fairways and semi-roughs etc