The season is here

 Our new short game area on the driving range is now open

 Railway sleeper work is now completed all the way round the tee path at the 15th on the Balcomie course

 Some back filling required and gorse planting behind the new sleepers

 Whin dusting of the path surface has been started and will be completed next week to complete this major winter project just in time for the season starting

 We have now started to collect the grass clippings from the Balcomie course fairways to help reduce weed seeds and worm cast and present cleaner surfaces

 Screening sand for topping up bunkers will be ongoing for the next couple of weeks

 We have applied a soluble iron to the Craighead course fairways to help deter moss

 Between holes 6 & 8 and 9 & 18 on the Craighead course we have been planting more gorse to help separate these holes,add more feature and encourage wildlife to these areas

 some cracking mornings

 More course furniture being painted going into the season

 We have knocked down the old storm hut at the 3rd tee on the Balcomie course as it was in disrepair and is getting rebuilt like for like

 this should be completed and painted by the end of next week, weather pending

This week we have been trialing a fairway brush to help reduce cutting in the winter months and clean the surfaces of worm-casts/stand the grass up before cutting which should help reduce wear and tear on our cutting units and give better presentation

 Work is progressing well at at the building of the railway sleepers a round the 15th tees on the Balcomie course and now we are building the railway sleepers on the other side of the path

 Edging/weeding and topping up of our tee paths is ongoing

 the new turf is starting to grow through our rubber matting at the end of certain tee paths to reduce wear and tear

 We have knocked down the storm hut next to the 3rd tees on the Balcomie course as in disrepair, this will be rebuilt like for like in the next few weeks

 I attended a BIGGA talk on the upgrades on their irrigation system at the Castle course at St Andrews Links, which was very informative talk which will really help us plan for when we are replacing the Balcomie course irrigation system, tanks and pump house this Autumn

at the start of the week we took the chance before the wind that was foretasted later in the week to fertilise our greens, tees and walkways on the Balcomie course and the tees & walkways on the Craighead course going into the season

 Not long till our new short game area will be open for the season

 We have started work on our wildflower area on the driving range, we will have this seeded out in April as done in previous years

 Edging/weeding tee paths over both courses is going well for going into the new season

 We have had a local contractor in re-grading our road to the Greenkeeping shed

 Work is progressing well at the tee and path at 15th on the Balcomie course

 We have been out cutting all areas this week over both our courses and driving range for going into the season

Finishing off course furniture painting

Fantastic weather in February

 The weather the last 2 weeks has been great, which has allowed us to crack on with out work projects and carry out some cutting to tidy up both our courses

 The 11th medal tee on the Balcomie course has now been re-turfed and will be back in play mid April

 The 16th tee on the Balcomie course has been re-turfed and will be back in play mid April

 All the surrounding areas of the newly built dyke at hole 15 on the Craighead course has been levelled and re-turfed, this area will be cut short to show off the dyke and hopefully be a great feature for the course

 Last Saturday afternoon I held a talk/tour of the Greenkeeping department, highlighting how we run the department and what is involved in looking after both our courses and a look behind the scenes 

 We went over each machine and their uses

 All our greens, surrounds and tees on both courses have been sprayed with soluble iron

 Tee path ends on the Balcomie course have been re-turfed and matting laid to help the wear at these areas

 We have primed both our irrigation systems up for the season and have repaired 2 bursts on the Balcomie course system already

 Giving both the newly turfed tees a little water with the dry forecast

 Work is progressing well at the 15th tee path on the Balcomie course

 Railway sleeper tee bank taking shape

We have carried out more painting on the Balcomie course again this week ready for the season