Great definition on both our courses as we are at full cutting and the rain lately has really helped the courses come on

 The new short game area is coming on really well and has been really busy with play, great to see it being utilised

 I am fortunate enough that the Club backed me in furthering my education in the last year with me completing SVQ in Management at SCQF level 11, which will really help me with the day to day running of the staff, courses and planning etc

 Not only are we removing the grass clippings from our fairways over both courses, we a have started the same process on our driving range to produce a cleaner surface and to help remove weed seeds, this process does take much longer to complete but well worth it 

 With us having the heat and rain now, we have started to deep scarify, clean up, over seed, top-dress weak areas on our Balcomie course fairways from last years drought as fairways 2 & 12 are on pure sand and dry out very quickly, this will continue through out this season

 All the debris was cleared up before seeding

 the scarifier makes a great seed bed for over seeding

 The surfaces are softer with the rain we have had, which is great for the seeder to make a decent hole for the seed and allow the seed to drop in the scarifying lines then a heavy top-dressing of sand to cover the seed

 We have cleaned up the surrounding area round the newly built 3rd storm hut on the Balcomie course

Even though we have had rain and are not using the irrigation systems at present it's a great time to catch up with repairs so we are all up and running for going into a dry spell again

 All go on the courses, we are now at full cutting of all areas

 This year we have started to collect the grass clippings from all the fairways over both courses to take the weed seeds off and polish them up more

 With the dry weather continuing we have been out hand watering in the mornings and using the automatic system through the night as this is usually the calmest and coolest weather to reduce water usage

 With us at full growth we have been out using the turf iron to help gain speed on the putting surfaces

 The weekly cut and clean of the burn that runs through the Balcomie course

 All fairways have been sprayed with a selective herbicide to reduce the daises and with removing the grass clippings this will reduce any weed seeds re-germinating

We have plugged the worn area in between the green and the bunker at hole 11 on the Balcomie course

 The Craighead greens are recovering well after the aeration work 2 weeks ago

 We have applied more sand on to the Craighead course greens to aid recovery

 The new short game area has knitted in well and is being well used

 The bunkers on the new short game area are handling the daily practicing well, all we need to do is brush the the faces weekly as they are made from artificial turf

 11th green getting some water on the Craighead course

 With us using the irrigation system at full capacity over both courses we are having the odd issue on the old Balcomie course system

 To help aid water movement into the soil profile on our greens we have been out spiking the top 10mm with a needle tine

 When we get the chance we have been spiking/seeding/top-dressing and watering weak areas on fairways from last years drought

To aid in the recovery from the aeration work on the Craighead course greens we have applied a fertiliser at low rate

 Great definition on the courses, holes 15 & 17 on the Balcomie course

 holes 5 & 6 on the Balcomie course

 hole 14 on the Craighead course

 We have installed a marker pole on our 2nd fairway on the Balcomie course to help visitors play to the correct fairway which will hopefully help pace of play at holes 2 & 12

 With this dry spell continuing, we have been out hand watering and applying more wetting agent to allow better penetration of the water into the soil profile

 We are now at full growth on all areas, so to help maintain our greens we have been brushing the grass before cutting to help lift any lateral growth, gaining a better cut and finish

 This week saw us start our aeration program to the Craighead course greens, which consists of deep solid tining using a 10mm tine to a depth of 200mm to relieve compaction and improve air and water movement and then hopefully encourage deeper rooting

 then the greens were turf ironed to smooth off the surface before the next process

 next was to scarify in 2 directions to rip out thatch to a depth of 6mm, then verti-cut and cut to clean the surfaces up. Our aim is to reduce our organic matter level in the top 20mm of the soil profile to gain firmer and healthier greens

 This is the amount of thatch taken out of each green from the scarifying and verti-cutting

next stage is to improve the grass species on the playing surfaces, so we have over seeded with fescue seed then again with bent seed at different depths to give us the best chance of germination over the next few weeks

then after that we have applied 1 ton of sand onto each green to help cover the seed, fill in any holes and help dilute the thatch levels even more on the surfaces, the greens have been rubbed in to work the sand into the soil profile then surfaces watered, the top-dressing process will be repeated again next week to apply another 0.5 tons per green which will aid in the surfaces recovery