Getting the courses set up for play

 Applying a little liquid feed to the Balcomie course greens & surrounds

 Starting to get the darker damper mornings now

 The old drain line at the 15th hole on the Balcomie course has been re-turfed as the seed never really had a chance with the 12 weeks of drought this Summer

 With holding the British Ladies Senior Championship next week on the Craighead course, we have had to build an overflow car park to accommodate the extra vehicles as the Pro shop car park will be fully closed for the R&A

 Getting all the areas at the roundabout edged/weeded and tidied up

 We have put in power to our car park at the Pro shop for when the R&A come for their portakabins etc and a Ballard to protect the electrical box from vehicles parking next to it

 Both courses have greened up since the rain and we are getting good recovery from the drought

 Our daily tasks are back on to full cutting instead of hand watering now

 Last week we held the Brookfield matches, so we got the course flags made up for them to give out as gifts at their presentation

 We have have spiked/seeded/top-dressed any weak tees from the drought this Summer to aid in the recovery

 giving the seed a good soaking to help with the germination

 we have caught up with hand weeding greens this week, to keep a smooth and clean surface

 One of our Greenkeepers, John Bowers has left to take up a Greenkeeping position at the new Dumbarnie Links which is in the process of being built, so we wish him all the best for the future

John's position has been filled by Gerard Brown who has worked at Charlton GC, so we welcome Gerard to the Crail Greenkeeping team

 All go this week with preparing both the courses for their Gents and Seniors Opens

 We are continuing to spike the surfaces on the greens to aid water penetration into the soil profile

 After we spike we will brush, cut then turf iron to smooth the surface off for play

 Another application of wetting agent to the greens

 Both courses are starting to green up after the rain, so we have carried out more cutting to keep things neat and tidy

 We are carrying on with our light top-dressing of sand to the Craighead course greens then watering in

 We have marked off the areas on the tees on the Craighead course and gave them 2 heavy top-dressings of sand to improve the surfaces for the British Ladies Senior Championships in September

 Our new short game area is coming on nicely with just 1 bunker to fill with sand and build road at rear to finish off this project ready for opening on the 28th of August

 new road at rear of short game area, this will really finish/tidy up this area

 We have replaced all the surrounds on our tee sprinklers on both courses to tidy them up and re-level them

With having the British Ladies Senior Championships in September, we have had to install ducting for electric cabling to the bottom of our car parks for the R&A portacabins etc

 Can't beat being out first thing in the morning setting up the courses for play

 With the dry spell it has allowed us to catch up on some house keeping jobs, edging/weeding round the 1st tee starters hut on the Craighead course

 Another job was to re-fill and seed then heavy top-dress our recent drainage lines on hole 2 of the Craighead course

 This week seen us start to get signs of disease on our Craighead course greens called Take all patch, so we spiked the playing surfaces to help open the top 25mm up in the profile, sprayed a wetting agent/seaweed then applied a fungicide, hand drenched the greens then applied a liquid fertiliser/iron to aid in recovery

 Spraying fungicide after cutting

 Drenching the greens with wetting agent

Our wild flower area on the driving range has been a success this year again even in these dry conditions

Water, water and more water

 It looks like this dry spell is here for a while longer, which means we have been out hand watering greens and tees most days plus the automatic irrigation system on at nights

 The far end on the Balcomie course is really struggling for water as it's the further part of the course away from the pump house so water pressure is lower due to the distance plus with the system being old it will have small leaks in the pipelines

 With both courses fully booked this week with visitors due to the Open being at Carnoustie Links we have been starting at 4am to allow the staff to complete their tasks to keep ahead of play

 Courses really burnt out, so playing fast and firm

 With the reduction on cutting it has allowed us to catch up on divoting landing areas and small jobs that we struggle to get to at this time of year

 I was very lucky to get picked to go on a trip to Chicago to see the TPC John Deere run Classic course and play in the Pro am, it was great to see what is involved behind the scenes to run such an event and what goes into preparing the course in their climate

 We also got shown round the world John Deere headquarters

 This week was the start of our Club Championship over both courses, so attention was on preparing both the courses especially the greens for this

 We applied a light top-dressing of sand to both courses greens this week then a water in, this is to help keep a smooth surface and reduce thatch levels without interrupting the golf at this busy time

 The grow in of our new short game area is coming on really well

 With the continued dry spell with have applied wetting agent to our tees to help water penetrate into the profile

 Then alight water in, other tasks have been hand watering high spots on greens and surrounding areas to keep the grass plant ticking over

 I was lucky enough to get a tour with The BIGGA central section up at Carnoustie Links on the Championship course prior to The Open, great to see all the work that the guys have done to present the course in such great condition