It's that time of year again replacing any damaged or old sprinklers

 We have managed to fully divot the worst fairways on the Balcomie course

 Next week we will start to lightly scarify fairways over both the courses to help cut out lateral growth and long ends that the fairway mower is not cutting

 On Thursday afternoon I attended a workshop/seminar on cutting technology at St Andrews Links

 The Craighead course greens & surrounds got another application of wetting agent & seaweed then watered in

 The 16th surround on the Balcomie course has always had a problem with rabbits scraping so all the scrapes were plugged with our 6" winter hole changer then the whole area got a good soaking

 I'm over the moon with the success of our rough management plan of cutting, collecting of the deep rough areas over both the courses then spraying with a herbicide to reduce the thicker/rougher grasses these areas are much more playable and look great too this will be on going

 Golfers can easily find their ball now but still a tough shot out

 The rough area to the right of hole 7 on the Craighead course has some marsh orchids flowering

 The Craighead course greens were verti-cut, cut then turf ironed to help smooth off the surface and lift seed heads

All go on the Balcomie course this morning with all bunker raked, greens cut & ironed then sprayed with the monthly wetting agent & seaweed, fairways cut and any semi-roughs needing cut and in the afternoon the burn cut and cleaned

 With the dry and warm weather we have been keeping our greens & tees watered but not to much just enough to give the plant a drink

 All the bunkers on the Craighead courses were cut/cleaned/blown then raked and next week we will spray a selective herbicide round the edges of the bunkers

We applied an organic fertiliser to help strengthen up the 18th surround area on the Balcomie course as it gets a lot of wear

 A cracking morning to spray some fertiliser and iron on the Craighead course greens and surrounds after cutting

 then a water in

The usual Tuesday afternoon jobs was to collect balls, cut the range and set up the junior course for tonight's coaching

All routine jobs this morning were put on hold apart from cutting of the greens over both courses and all hands on deck to clean up as much as possible of the blown sand from the bunkers, reshape and rake the bunkers over both courses after the high winds on Saturday, the 14th railway sleeper bunker on the Balcomie course needed 7 tons of sand to replace what had blown out.

 This week we managed to double verti-cut, cut & turf iron greens on both courses to help cut out any lateral growth and smooth the surfaces off

 The amount of clippings from 1 green 1 pass

 With the dry and windy weather its time to water our newly seeded turf nursery to help the seed germinate

The staff busy carrying out daily tasks to set up the courses for play