Cutting of all the playing surfaces on the Balcomie course ready for the start of our competitions this weekend 

We are still cutting tees with grass boxes off so not to lift any slow release fertiliser which was applied 

We have sprayed our fairways on the Balcomie course with selective herbicide to reduce the daisies then we have left them for 10 days to allow the chemical to work and now cutting with grass boxes on to help take away the seed heads from the weeds and have a nicer/cleaner finish 

The Craighead course greens are recovering well, this is the 13th green after it's first cut and 14 days after the aeration work 

We then applied another 0.5tons of sand to help fill in any scarifying lines and further help reduce our organic matter levels 

We have put our new thin pins and hole cups out on the Balcomie course ready for the first competition this weekend. Once the Craighead greens have healed we will do the same in about 3 weeks as we are still planning to be top-dressing with sand to help aid recovery from the aeration work 

April has been a very dry & cold month with only 2.5mm of rain, so we have been using our new irrigation system most nights over both the courses & hand water high spots in the mornings on greens 

We use a moisture probe to help us gauge how much water to apply and where to apply it, which helps us reduce water usage overall and help us produce more consistent surfaces 

All our greens/PG's over both courses have had an application of liquid fertiliser & wetting agent 
 

Aeration week on the Craighead course

It's that time of year when we close the Craighead course for a week to carry out essential major aeration work to the greens, we carry this work out every second year due to the severity of the work 

We have deep scarified to a depth of 15mm to rip out organic matter (thatch) to help improve the surfaces, improve firmness, air & water movement 

The machine we used collected most of the material coming out 

Then we cleared the surfaces with shovels and blowers 

The next process was to lightly scarify in 2 directions to take out more material and help close the deeper scarifying lines 

The amount of material out of the surface from half a green 

The surfaces after all the scarifying, recovery will take about 6 to 8 weeks depending on the weather, this aeration work is essential in the long term health of our greens and having good surfaces all year round 

A slow turf iron to help start to smooth and firm the surfaces off before seeding and top-dressing