Merry Christmas from the Greenstaff

2nd yellow tee on the Craighead course has been extended and re-leveled 

New turf going down, we also replaced the old worn out irrigation sprinkler, so we should get a much better water coverage  

Tee roped off to allow establishment of the new turf and will be back in play at the start of the Season

Our new in-house built drinking fountain has replaced our old fountain at the Craighead course toilets at the 9th tee path 

We have started to rebuild the bunker short right of our 2nd green on the Craighead course

We have reduced the size slightly and we are raising the face to make it easier to maintain the surrounding areas, this bunker will be completed in January 

We have had a very hard frost for 12 days 

With the hard frost it was great to cut back the gorse at the 18th tee carry on the Balcomie course to open up the view from the tee 

With the ground being solid with frost any snow/rain could not penetrate the surfaces, which meant a lot of flooding which then froze over night and then we had a lot of big patches of ice over both courses 

Once the courses thawed out we managed to slit tine the Balcomie course greens to a depth of 150mm to help open up the surfaces 

No surface disturbance 

The right hand side bunker at green 1 on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt 

The Balcomie greens being cut after the slit tining and ready fro the busy Christmas period 

Fairways over both courses have been cut to tidy up the surfaces 
 

Winter course maintenance

Greens over both courses have been verti-drained down to a depth of 175mm with a 19mm solid tine to relieve compaction and aid drainage through the winter months 

The walkway/bridge at our 12th fairway on the Balcomie course has been re-turfed and rubber matting added as this area was worn out as its a tight bottle neck area for foot traffic 

The new turf will grow through the matting, which should be much harder wearing 

The walkway into the 14th tee on the Balcomie course is always wearing out, so we have laid Railway sleepers and matting to stop this area wearing out 

The surrounding areas re-turfed 

Hopefully this area should stay neater and less worn 

We have laid matting which the grass will grow through and be much better wearing 

After the greens were verti-drained they were all slowly rolled to help smooth the surfaces before play 

We have started to re-level and slightly extend our 2nd yellow tee on the Craighead course, which should allow us more teeing ground, we will also replace both irrigation sprinklers to help us gain better water coverage in the Summer months 

Striping off the old turf, this turf will be re-used for building bunkers etc 

The tee surface was harrowed in different directions to help loosen up the existing soil to allow us to level off the surface 

2nd greenside bunker rebuilt on the Craighead course 

The next section of dyke to be rebuilt was along the right hand side of fairway 8 on the Craighead course 

We have been out giving our fairways a cut but the cutting has been reduced as growth is now slowing down, in the last 2 months we have had good recovery from the long Summer drought

7th greenside bunker on the Craighead course rebuilt 

We are in the middle of making another in-house Railway sleeper recycling bin and basket area for our driving range, hopefully golfers will place their used baskets in this area once finished practicing  

Carrying on with the Railway sleeper theme we have across both our courses, we are making a new drinking fountain for the Craighead course with an added bottle filler tap 

 

Winter maintenance week

 

The Craighead course fairways have all been slit tined to relieve compaction 

Face nearly built 

9th Greenside bunker being rebuilt on the Craighead course 

Face rebuilt and just the surrounds to be turfed 

We have started to rebuild the 2nd greenside bunker on the Craighead course 

We have started to verti-drain our tees and walkways etc on the Craighead course to relieve compaction from the Summers play and improve drainage going into the winter months 

We have built another recycling Railway sleeper bin for the 10th tees on the Craighead course 

We have reused the cores taken out of the greens to level off areas round the courses at manholes etc 

the amount of material taken out of just half the 14th green 

cores being cleared up 

We have carried out more mini-coring to the Craighead course greens to take out more thatch to improve the firmness of the surfaces 

The Craighead course greens being sprayed with a liquid iron to help harden the plant going into the winter months

The Balcomie course greens recovering well after their aeration work