Another great year at Crail Golfing Society,All the best for 2017

 10th green on the Craighead course

 Holes 1 & 14 on the Balcomie course

 15th on the Craighead course

13th tee and the old lifeboat shed on the Balcomie course

 Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from the Greenstaff

 Greens on both courses looking really well and playing well for this time of year

 We are in the process of fixing, adding heavy weights to the lids and painting the tee bins, hopefully this reduce wind damage

 The 5th fairway bunker rebuilt on the Balcomie course, sand will be added at the start of the season to reduce sand blow until then

The 17th fairway bunker rebuilt on the Balcomie course. Other tasks have been a full cut of all playing surfaces ready for the busy Christmas period.

 Monday was a frosty morning

 With the Balcomie course being on it's mid week winter closure we took the opportunity to spray the greens, surrounds, tees & fairways with soluble iron to help harden up the plant cells, which should help reduce disease pressure

 Playing areas darkening up with the iron application

 Before we sprayed the greens and surrounds, we gave them another top-dressing of sand to continue to help produce firmer and drier surfaces

 The 5th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course being rebuilt

 Water pipe trench work ongoing

This week I attended a seminar on bio pesticides, as this is a hot topic in Greenkeeping at present with so many chemicals coming off the market

 This week the Craighead course is on it's mid week winter closure, so we have rebuilt the 9th green side bunker as the face was worn out

 Graham checking the steepness of the new face at different stages of the build

 With the Craighead course closed, we have a drainage contractor in carrying out work to our 2nd fairway which has surface drainage issues

 They are digging out channels down to 12"

 Each channel is being filled up to 8" of pea gravel then 4" of sand above to allow the water away from the surface much quicker

 The new toilets are coming along as scheduled on the Balcomie course

 Last week saw our first real frost of the winter, which meant play was on winter greens on the Craighead course to help protect the full greens

 When we do get frosts its a good time to get on with our gorse management plan over both courses, as the staff are away from the main playing surfaces so not to cause damage

 Another job was to edge/weed the maintenance path at the 18th on the Balcomie course

 Trench work is ongoing

 We have managed to get another application of sand on the Craighead course greens, surrounds and par 3 tees to help dilute thatch and produce a firmer surface

 Aeration to fairways is still ongoing when weather permits to help reduce surface compaction from the summers play and mowing

the 9th green side bunker on the Craighead course is being rebuilt to replace the worn and damaged face

 We applied liquid iron to the Balcomie greens & surrounds to harden the plant up through the winter months

 8th green side bunker on the Balcomie course rebuilt

 Aeration work ongoing to all fairways over both courses

 the new irrigation pipe/duct and water mains pipe installation ongoing, we are covering the pipes with sand so reduce any damage from stones etc to the pipe work

 It's the start of the mid week closures on the Balcomie course for the next 2 weeks, so we have rebuild greenside bunker at 13 and made a start to digging out the 8th greenside bunker ready to be build next week

 All greens & surrounds were slit tined to a depth of 6" then cut then top-dressed to help dilute thatch and produce a firmer surface

 We are continuing to rebuild the 11th wall on the Craighead course

 The edges round the 15th storm hut were edged and weeded to tidy up this area

 13th tee path on the Craighead course was edged and weeded

The trench work across the driving range is still on going and the new irrigation pipe has been getting fusion welded together ready for being laid with the water pipe to the new toilets