With the dry spell, we have primed up our irrigation system over both the courses ready for the season

 We have been busy screening sand for the newly built bunkers and any bunker that's needing fresh sand

 Work continues on the tee paths on the Balcomie course once we have completed the daily courses set up

 We are now not far away from our full cutting program of all areas

 We have re-positioned the 7th bin and ball washer on the Balcomie course slightly lower down the path to reduce it being hit from balls off the back medal tee and incorporated railway sleepers on the surrounding area

 7th path being edged, weeded then topped up with whindust

 We have now started our wetting agent program on the greens & surrounds plus we applied liquid iron to add colour to the surfaces before we apply our spring fertiliser next week weather pending

 The bridge over to the 2nd tee has been repaired by re-turfing the worn areas plus added matting for grip in wet conditions, which means all the railway sleepers bridges over the burn have been completed

 Another task we completed this week was to replace the damaged drains in the car park

The new season has arrived

 All tees on both courses have been brushed and cut

 All tees have been fertilised with a 12.5.20 spring/summer fertiliser

 To keep the greens true and smooth we have been rolling or cutting when required

 The newly raised 10th medal tee on the Balcomie course has had it's first cut and is now in play

 The Craighead course greens have been deep spiked to 10" to help aid drainage and relieve compaction

 Then the greens and surrounds were top-dressed to help true the surfaces and dilute thatch

 Work at the 13th tee path on the Balcomie course is on going

 We have replaced the old steps at the 8th tee on the Balcomie course and Incorporated a new bin and ballwasher

 This gives us an additional bin and ballwasher on the course

We have started to edge,weed and repair tee paths on the Balcomie course

 Not long till the start of the season, so we have been cracking on with tidying up jobs ie edging, weeding and cleaning off any moss on the 14th path on the Balcomie course

 Tee paths and walkways over the Historic Danes dyke on the Craighead course have been edged, weeded and topped up with fresh whin dust

 All bunkers have now been completed by edging, weeding, reshaping and topping up with fresh sand, our newly built bunkers should be in play by mid April depending on weather

 The outfield areas surrounding the new Balcomie course toilets were raked, seeded then heavily top-dressed as the temperature is starting to rise for the seed the germinate

 The Craighead course greens and surrounds have had a full application of iron to help check any moss going into the season, we will be another 2 weeks before we apply our spring fertiliser to both sets of greens

 A couple of our weaker tees have been hollow cored, seeded and top-dressed to aid recover from the winter

On Tuesday night I attended a seminar from Dr Paul Miller at Elmwood College on the subject of Nitrogen and soils

Spring is here

 It's been a great week to get all the playing surfaces over both courses ready for the up and coming season this week

 We are carrying out all the edging/tidying up jobs round about the car parks etc

 We sprayed a moss killer on the edges of the car parks about 3 weeks ago and now we are clean these areas up

 This week I attended the BIGGA Scottish Conference at Perth Concert hall, talks were from the STRI on the environment, Alan Hogg from Kingsbarns on customer service, Martin Ebert on course architect and Allan Paterson, Course manager at Trump Turnberry on all the changes to the courses and Hotel

 Work is on-going at the path rear of the 13th tee etc on the Balcomie course

New course toilets

 Work is still on-going at the pathway to the new course toilets

 On the path we have laid 2" of recycled road planings to make a real firm base then 2" of grey whin dust for the surface of the path to match the rest of the tee paths etc over both courses

 Cementing for the new fencing at the toilets, these posts can be taken out for cutting etc

 The astroturf has been laid at side of the toilets to finish off this area, where we will place a bench and flower pots

 We are repairing the road that is at the rear of the 13th tee to fit in with the new toilet path

 Repairs to the path to the 16th green on the Balcomie course

 Walkway to the 1st fairway on the Balcomie course completed

 With storm Doris last week we carried on with repairing and painting our tee bins

 All the bunkers on the Balcomie course have been edged, weeded and sand reshaped for going into the new season, we just need to add fresh sand to certain bunkers

 With the nice weather we took the chance to apply more sand to the Balcomie course greens after they were turf ironed to remove the morning dew