Both courses looking well going into the winter months

 Giving all surfaces a cut going into the Xmas period before going down to a skeleton staff till after the new year

 Congratulations to Nick Horsfield our 1st assistant on his 25 years service at the Club

 The 11th left greenside bunker was rebuilt on the Balcomie course

 The surrounding area at the newly built dyke at holes 15/16 on the Craighead course has been levelled off and turfed

 We have now started to re-turf the golf course side of the newly built banking at hole 13 on the Craighead course

 We have made a start to our next big winter project of re-levelling the 7th red/yellow tee on the Balcomie course

 The pathway will be widen by 600mm and we will then build a railway sleeper bank on the tee side of the path which will incorporate 2 sets of steps, bench and bin/ball washer etc

 All the greens and tees on the Craighead course were slit tined to a depth of 6" to relieve compaction

 The Balcomie course fairways were all brushed then cut to remove worm casts and tidy them up for the Xmas period, the plan was to complete the same work to the Craighead course fairways but this has been delayed due to the wet ground conditions 

 We have made a start to rebuilding the 8th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course, this will hopefully be completed before Xmas, weather pending

 The new Balcomie course irrigation install is going great and on schedule with 8 holes completed and 3 holes partially completed going into the Xmas break

 Installing the new irrigation pipework, cables & sprinklers to tee 12, green 8 & 11

 I have been trying my hand at some joinery, we have a real issue here at Crail with high winds damaging our tee bin lids etc, so I'm trying to continue to use the railway sleeper theme throughout the course by building bins out of railway sleepers, these should last for years as solid wood, we have also tried to re-use our old bottom blades from our greens mowers to connect the sleepers together

The first built bin has been put at the 18th tee on the Balcomie course

 On Saturday 30th November, we had a very interesting and insightful presentation and tour of the Greenkeeping department to members and members of the Committee to let them see behind the scenes and what all goes on

 Tour of the new shed extension and an update on the new irrigation project

 At last dry enough to get back to levelling off the surrounding area at the newly built dyke at 15/16 on the Craighead course

 The guys are doing a great job finishing this area off, which will be used as a maintenance track in the future

 Our irrigation project is going really well and is on schedule with 35% work completed to date. the 90mm main pipeline is completed round the course plus extra hose points at fairways 4,5,8,10 & 15 

 Next step was the irrigation designer Adrian Mortram on site to mark out and measure all the sprinkler heads for holes 1 to 14 on greens, surrounds and tees plus fairways 2 & 12

then all these points have been GPS'd plus the mains line for the future and will be on a plan which will be on the pump-house wall

 The irrigation company are working at the 12th Green and surround this week installing the lateral pipe work, cables and sprinklers, then they will start the 12th & 2nd fairways

 the final boxes being installed on the main pipeline at 17th tees

 lateral pipework and sprinklers being installed at 14th green & surround 

They have hit rock rear of the 14th tees down to the coastline along the path, across the 17th fairway and at the 17th medal tees laying the 90mm mains pipework, which has all been dug out to get the pipe to the correct depths

 The newly built railway sleeper steps are completed from the Clubhouse to the Putting green with anti-slip grips on each step, these will be in use from the start of the season to allow the surrounding turf to establish 

A new heavy duty fence is being built to help hide the rubbish bins and the new back up fuel tank for the Clubhouse heating system

New irrigation system update

 The new irrigation system install for the Balcomie course is going really well and on schedule, with most of the 90mm mains line installed so far, the pipework comes in 100m lengths at at these points the pipework will be fusion welded to the next stretch of pipework 

 Very little disturbance after the mole plough has laid the pipe and cable to a depth of 600mm cover

 The new pump-house is nearing completion which will feed both courses irrigation systems

 Valve box being installed rear of the 12th green

 The new upgraded electric supply to the Pump-house is now installed which will also serve for the electric car charging points and future development of our driving range

 We have been out slit tining our Craighead course fairways again to 5" to relieve compaction and help surface drainage

 The 10th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course was rebuilt

 Adverse weather jobs has been to cut back/trim gorse at the rear of the 13th hole on the Balcomie course and along the roadside to the Greenkeeping shed at hole 11 on the Craighead course

 We have added new practise mats, ball trays and inserted new wood frame at our driving range tee as this was in need of tidying up and the existing mat surface is past it's best

Rebuilding of more bunkers this week in between the 1st fairway and the 14th green on the Balcomie course

 Both bunker rebuilt

One of the 8th fairway bunkers also rebuilt on the Balcomie course this week and in the background the install of the new irrigation system which is all on schedule

 The Balcomie greens are recovering well after the aeration work 3 weeks ago plus the extra top-dressing sand last week with signs of the seed germinating

 Our new shed extension is now completed, so we have now got a local Contractor on site to raise the banking rear of the 13th green on the Craighead course to help hide the shed ends from the course, then we will seed and plant this area out with gorse and broom

We have painted the internal walls of the new shed extension to help brighten it up to reduce using the lights

 The new irrigation tank and pump-house are in place now

Next week the new electric feed for the pump-house will be connected