Courses greener than usual at this time of year

 Great definition when the sun comes out

Graham our apprentice being shown how to cut tees

 All bunker face were cut/blown and bunkers shaped & raked

 Both sets of greens & surrounds getting an application of growth regulator & seaweed this week

 The fortnightly application of growth reg is working well on the greens with under a box of clippings from 18 greens plus both putting greens

 In the Afternoons we have been busy rotovating, levelling and getting the turf nursery seeded as this is out the way of any golf, we will hopefully see the seed germinate in about 2 weeks

The seeded area will be watered daily to help the seed germinate

 We have started to cut & collect problem areas of deep rough to help speed up play plus allows us to keep to our rough management plans, the only issue we are finding is that once these areas have been cut we need to spray a selective herbicide to control Thistles

 The area of deep rough at hole 16 on the Craighead course has been cut & collected and sprayed with a herbicide to kill off the rougher grasses, which has worked well

 Marsh Orchids at the right of hole 7 on the Craighead course

 Both courses in great shape ready for the Club Championship this weekend. 7th green Craighead

 8th tee Craighead

 16th green Craighead

 17th green Craighead

 10th green Craighead

 16th green Balcomie

 15th & 17th Balcomie

 16th tee Craighead

14th & 15th  fairway Craighead

 It's been all go with the spurt in growth from the rain we had last week with cutting of all areas

 We try to spike the greens on both courses every 2 weeks to help break up surface compaction and allow water etc into the profile

 A job that was badly needing done was to verti-cut all the tees on both courses

 Tadpoles getting bigger

 We have made a start to preparing our turf nursery for seeding etc

 All bunkers faces over both courses have been cut, blown and cleaned

We have had to spike and seed an area on green 15 of the Balcomie course, as it has been burnt by Seagull droppings

 What a great visit to the Hickory golf club at Kingarrock Estate, where Owen Browne gave us a tour of what they are trying to achieve in the way of 1920's greenkeeping practices etc, well worth a visit and a game

 An old set of trailed gangs for cutting the fairways, tees and semi-roughs

 Owen telling us about how they manage the greens

 The sheep in the back ground controlling their deep roughs

 Back to Crail. We have been testing any old sprinkler head we have and repairing them to be reused in the future

 With the wet weather we have been up cleaning and blowing the car parks and making sure the shoe cleaner is kept clean each morning

 This week seen a slight attack of disease with the damp/wet conditions on the greens so we have been out spraying a systemic fungicide to control this before getting any scarring

Both courses have really greened up again and we are cutting a lot more grass over all areas

 Great to see the new buds coming through on the gorse that was cut back in the winter months

 Profile view of the Craighead course greens 5 weeks after the major aeration work

 It's that time of year when we are repairing irrigation bursts on the Balcomie course

 Replacing damaged tee sprinklers

 With the dry spell we have been out watering, plus the automatic irrigation system has been on at nights too

 Courses starting to dry up and play like a true Links

Most tasks this week have been keeping on top of cutting all areas and lightly scarifying the Balcomie course fairways which was started last week

 Busy  busy as we are at full cutting now plus we are trying to turf iron greens when possible to help keep a good surface speed

 We have an old concrete diesel tank bund at our dump area that we left for wildlife and now we have tadpoles just hatched

 watering walkways etc as the courses are starting to dry up

 At least once a week we are brushing the greens before cutting to help stand the grass up for a better cut

 It's that time of year when we start ti lightly scarify our fairways to help cut out long ends and lateral growth, this will be on going for the next month

 The drainage lines on the Craighead are continuously being heavily top-dressed etc to produce a smooth surface, this will be on going

I took the chance to tidy up and make brackets etc for all our hole cutting tools for each course