The guys busy setting the course up for play, we are starting to use the hand mowers for cutting greens when possible

 Both front green side bunkers on hole 12 on the Craighead course have been rebuilt as their faces were worn out from play

 This week is the start of burying all the overhead electric cables from the bottom of our driving range, through both our car parks and on holes 11 & 12 on the Craighead course, this project will hopefully be completed in 2 to 3 weeks then another week or 2 for all the clearing up etc

 the new cable will be ducted on all areas for protection

 The contractors have hit a lot of rock especially at holes 11 & 12 on the Craighead course

 more rock, so they have had to use a picker to break through to get the correct depths for laying the new cables

 New cable ready to be installed into the duct. These poles will all be taken down in the next couple of days

The Greenstaff will carry out all the clearing up and re-instating of the areas where possible

 This week we have made a start to rebuilding and extending the 11th medal tee on the Balcomie course

 We are replacing the top 8" of sandy soil on the tee to make it a little richer in soil to help improve the playing surfaces in the droughts as this tee has always struggled in these conditions

 bunker right of the 1st green on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt

 the 9th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt

 All fairways on the Balcomie course have been sprayed with iron to help harden the grass plant through the winter months, also the 2nd fairway had an application of fert/seaweed as it has struggled through the summer drought, plus this will help the new seed that we put down

 front green-side bunker on hole 7 of the Craighead course is being rebuilt

an operation we carry out each year on all the drainage areas that we have completed in the last 6 years or so on the Craighead course is to disc aerate these areas to 5" to open up the surfaces going into the winter months to connect the surface profile to the drainage to aid air and water movement

this year we applied a heavy sand top-dressing to help smooth the surfaces of these drainage areas before aerating, this should also help incorporate a little sand into the soil profile

Great achievement for the Greenstaff

 This week saw our Balcomie course receive the award for best golf course between £50-£100 green fee at the Scottish golf tourism awards, well done guys

 We have been busy building bunkers again this week, the 10th greenside on the Craighead course has been rebuilt

 The Craighead course fairways have been double slit tined again this week to relieve as much surface compaction as possible

 The 7th greenside bunker on the Craighead course has been rebuilt this week

 This week as we do once a year is to get our local drainage contractor in to carry out work to our 2nd fairway on the Craighead course

 We have installed a main 4" pipe round the fairway to be used to take the water off the surface of the fairway

 the pipe has been installed to a depth of 700mm, with 10-20mm gravel then 2-6mm grit then rootzone on top and the pipe line re-turfed

 We have started to install gravel banding across the fairway which will all lead into the new main drain to take the water away from the fairway

this fairway drainage will be completed next year to fit in with our planned budgets, then we will move on to another area on the course, all going well we will have our planned drainage project completed in the next 5/6 years on the Craighead course

 Some moody sky's this week

 We have rebuilt the 17th greenside bunker on the Craighead course

 we are continuing to seed and divot the old drainage lines from last year to smooth off the surfaces at hole 2 on the Craighead course

 That's us using winter tee mats at our par 3 tees over both courses to allow the surfaces to recover for next years season, the tee markers will be off turf for winter competitions

 Par 3 tees on both courses were fully divoted then a heavy sand top-dressing to fill in any old divots and smooth off the surfaces

 All Craighead course greens, surrounds, tees & fairways have been sprayed with iron to help harden up the plant going into the winter

 The Ladies 18th tee on the Craighead course has been re-leveled, we also have managed to re-use the existing turf to save wasting materials

 The tee will be out of play till the start of next season to allow to establish