This week we have had the Balcomie course closed to carry out aeration work to the greens & tees

 Greens & tees have been deep tined to 8" to help relieve the compaction from this years play plus our machinery

 Then we mini-cored to 1" to take out excess thatch

 Greens 16 & 18 we hollow cored with a 16mm tine to take more thatch out than the other greens

 The boys cleaning up the cores

 After the cores were collected we verti-cut to really clean up the surfaces and cut out any lateral growth plus this helps to open up the surface for seeding

 All the greens were over seeded in 2 directions to achieve the best germination of the seed

 the seed was then switched/brushed and drag matted into as many holes as possible

 Then the seed and holes were covered with sand and drag matted in then the surfaces were watered and vibrate rolled to help smooth the surfaces

Today was a catch up on all the cutting, as all the staff were on the aeration work for most part of the week

 This week we continued our aeration work to the surrounds with a 16mm hollow tine to relive compaction and help replace the heavy soil with sand on the Craighead course

 The 4th fairway on the Balcomie course has been cut back 10yards to help reduce the carry from the back medal tee, as this hole usually plays into the prevailing wind

 The Balcomie greens are recovering well from the dry spell

 This year we had 2 members of staff leave to progress with their careers, so we now have John Bowers who worked at Elie GC

and Steven Harris who worked at the Dukes GC joining our team, both have fitted in well

 After completing the aeration work to the greens on the Craighead course, we applied a 5.0.27 fertiliser to aid recovery

 We have started to deep aerate the Craighead tees to help relieve compaction and improve drainage

 That's the new benches out at the Craighead starters hut

 We applied a liquid Seaweed to the Balcomie greens

 It's that time of year to mark out, cut and top-dress etc our winter greens to allow any divots to repair before being in use

 That's our sprayer had it's MOT, which it passed with no problems. This is a new law that has came out to keep our power sprayer in tip top condition

 Another tow for us on Friday afternoon, a golfer managed to drive off the edge of the 16th tee path into the bell and bin

Finishing off our winter work plans etc for the Greens meeting this week

 Aeration work is now completed to the Craighead greens. We have in a demo deep aerator to try while carrying out aeration as our aerator is due for replacement after 13 years of service

 12mm solid tine down to a depth of 9"

 The greens were then mini-cored

 Cleaned up, verti-cut and blown to clean up all debris

 Then rolled and cut

 Over seeded

 Top-dressed with sand to help smooth the surface and to cover the new seed

then rubbed in and watered. The greens should be back to normal in a few days after rolling

 With the growth slowing down slightly, we took the chance to extend and tidy up the path going to the 9th tees on the Craighead course

 We have seen a slight disease attack on the Craighead greens, so we sprayed a preventative fungicide to control the attack, which should see use through the winter

 That's us starting our aeration work to the Craighead greens of deep tining to 8" to help aid drainage going into the winter months

 All the Craighead greens have now been solid tined to relieve surface compaction. At the same time we have been demoing different Companies tractors as our old tractor at 14 years old is due for replacement the start of next season.

 The mornings are now getting darker coming to the end of the season

 The 5th greens & surround on the Balcomie course has had some TLC, solid tined, double over seeded, top-dressed, rubbed in then watered as its our weakest green

Our first cut on our recently seeded turf nursery