Today we were welcomed by damage and debris from high tides which has affected holes 2,3,4,5,14 & 15 on the Balcomie course, so next week will be clean up time and hopefully no lasting damage to the turf

Yesterday I attended a workshop on golf course irrigation design at Elmwood, which has helped me understand more about this subject in detail. Jobs back on the courses have been cutting/trimming gorse back and painting areas in the shed as we are still having adverse weather.

 With the weather being better we are back rebuilding the 3rd greenside bunker on the Craighead course, for safety we have put the pin on the winter green

 Another job started today is the new path to the 1st fairway on the Balcomie course which should make it alot safer for the golfers in wet or damp conditions, other jobs were to cut & turf iron greens just to help clean & smooth off the surface as its been nearly 2 weeks since there last cut

 Most of the week we have been on winter greens on the Craighead course because of the frost and ice

 Work has started on rebuilding the 3rd rear greenside bunker on the Craighead course

 Drainage work on the 8th Fairway Craighead course has been stopped until the ground thaws

 With the adverse weather we have nearly completed all the insulation work to our paint room and cleaning/painting of the mess room and my office.Other jobs have been to start gorse cutting and gritting of the road to Clubhouse and car parks

Hopefully the weather improves to allow us to carry on with our winter work projects

 This week we have been busy re building the face on the 2nd greenside bunker, re-turfing the worn area on the 12th greenside bunker and edging out the other 12th bunker by 2 foot to make it easier to rake and play out of, hand weeding the Balcomie greens and slit tining the drier fairways as its been to wet to carryout drainage which we are hoping to start again tomorrow

 Another 15mm of rain yesterday which tested out our drainage project at hole 18 on the Balcomie course with good results thank god

 We carried out gravel banding above an old drain on the 6th surround on the Balcomie course which should help keep this area drier

 2nd greenside bunker completed

With more rain yesterday we carried on with more insulation work in the shed. other jobs were to cut and turf iron greens, change holes and move/divot tee markers and rake bunkers on both courses ready for the weekend

 With over 25mm of rain on Monday we had to close both courses first thing then we managed to get the Balcomie course open at 10.30am so we were making a start to replacing and adding extra insulation under the flooring above the office, drying room and mess room this will hopefully help reduce heating costs

 We had to chase sheep off the course as they never paid there green fees

 Today we managed to get back to our drainage project at the 18th on the Balcomie course as it was dry enough

 Back filling with pea gravel then finally with sand on top, these drainage lines will be seeded and top-dressed in the spring

 The Balcomie fairways being sprayed with soluble iron

 11th right hand greenside bunker on the Balcomie course being rebuilt

 2nd left hand greenside bunker being rebuilt

 We have had a local contractor in cutting down an area of gorse at the 18th hole on the Balcomie course as this area will be used as a dumping area for up to 300 tons of stones for our erosion project at the coastline rear of the 17th green plus a road way to and from the road to the 17th area so not to cause to much damage to the golf course and an added bonus of gorse maintenance to this area as the gorse was getting very tall and leggy so was needing cut back

 18th drainage project completed, view from the Clubhouse

View from the Clubhouse of gorse area that was cut back. Other jobs have been touching up bunkers and moving tee markers daily, slit tininig the Balcomie fairways before spraying and putting out the winter pins and flags