Greens aeration program

 The Greenstaff have done a great job despite the weather this week to carry out our aeration program to the Balcomie course greens, surrounds and tees

 Greens and tees were deep tined to 8" to relieve compaction and help drainage going into the winter months

 Greens were then turf ironed to smooth the surface off before mini-coring, this process is to reduce organic matter (thatch) and make pots for overseeding to help promote the desired grasses

 The mini coring helps to close the top of the big deep tined holes

 Tees deep tined after the greens were completed

 Once the surfaces were verti-cut and cut we then overseeded to get as much seed into the holes as possible

 Surfaces were then slowly drag matted to help get more seed into the holes before top-dressing

 Then the surfaces were top-dressed with sand to help cover the new seed and smooth the playing surfaces

 sand drag matted in

 We will apply more sand next week to the surfaces

 This week seen some wet weather, so we took this chance to clean the car park and drive areas as with wet/damp weather we get more grass from trolleys and golf shoes left all over the car park areas

 Other tasks was to paint the floors in the hallways, toilets, mess room and drying room to improve these areas

 Last week we carried out minor aeration work to the Craighead course greens, Mini-coring, cleaning up, double verti-cut, clean up, cut, top-dressed then rubbed in. this will allow more air into the soil profile, improve drainage and reduce thatch levels

 Once this work was completed we applied our Autumn fertiliser to the greens then watered in

 The hollow coring to the Craighead course surrounds has been completed this week and these will be top-dressed  through the winter months to help fill the core holes

We have applied a liquid fert and iron to the Balcomie course greens and surrounds this week to strengthen the plant up as we will be carrying out aeration work next week to these areas

 That's reached September already, so our main plans for this month is to 16mm hollow core any problem tees over both courses and all the fronts of the Craighead surrounds, the reason for this is to reduce compaction and thatch, replace the heavy soil in the surrounds and replace with good sand top-dressing to make the areas firmer and dryer

 Our new wildflower area that was seeded this year on the end of our driving range has been a great success and will hopefully be a real benefit to the birds and bees in the area

 With it coming to the end of the golfing season it's that time to start cutting and collecting the problem areas of deep roughs over both the courses to help make these areas thinner and more playable for next season, this is an ongoing task but we are starting to see the benefits

 We are still getting a fair bit of growth still so it's still the full cutting program over both the courses etc

 Anytime we get the chance we will be out hand weeding the greens to reduce chemical applications plus less stress on the plant as it's under enough stress with play and mowing at 4mm

 For H&S we decided to move and build a new petrol store next to our diesel tank and recycling wash pad plus add 2 more fire extinguishers at this area

 Holes 5 & 6 on the Balcomie course

 4th Fairway/carry on the Balcomie course

 5th fairway/carry on the Balcomie course

 2nd green on the Balcomie course looking back at the Clubhouse

 Green 9 on the Balcomie course

Green 1 on the Balcomie course looking across to the new course toilets