This week we have been carrying out tests on our old Balcomie course irrigation system to check pressure at certain points

 We have also installed 2 new water meters at our tanks to measure our water from both the bore holes

 in-between the wet weather this week we manged to paint our storm huts on the Balcomie course

 And paint our mess room, toilets and hall floors

The next section of dyke to be rebuilt on the Craighead course at hole 15 was cut down ready, so hopefully this will be started in November. Another jobs this week were to cut most of the playing areas, an Autumn fertiliser was applied to the Balcomie course tees and catching up on fairway divoting too

 We have been out spiking weak areas on our fairways from the Summer drought to aid recovery, then seeding and top-dressing these areas, the spiking makes a small pot for the new seed

 After the aeration work last week on the Balcomie course greens - they are recovering well, we will only roll the surfaces to allow recovery then cut at a higher height of cut at 6mm instead of 4mm to allow the seed to germinate

 We have been applying irrigation each morning to wash in the top-dressing sand and keep the new seed wet to help with germination, this week we applied another 12tons of top-dressing sand to fill in any core holes still requiring topping up

 weak areas on 2nd fairway

 With applying so much sand to our greens we needed to clean out/trim the greens sprinklers not only to keep them tidy but to stop sand getting into the gearing of the sprinklers

 The old 11th medal tee on the Balcomie course is now being dug away and made into a banking as this tee can not be used since the new course toilets were built, but we will be extending the existing 11th medal tee this Autumn to cope with play

 we have applied our Autumn fertiliser to the greens over both courses to help with recovery and strengthen the plant up going into the winter months

Another task we have started this week is to cut and collect deep rough areas, this is to help make these areas more playable by taking the grass away and hopefully starving these areas of nutrients to help reduce the thickness of the grass sward for the next season

 All go this week as we have started out aeration work to the Balcomie course greens and tees

 First of all we deep spiked the greens & tees to a depth of 8" to improve drainage, air movement and relieve compaction from the season

 the greens were then rolled to smooth the surface off before we carried out coring

 the greens were then mini hollow cored to reduce thatch levels and make a pot for the overseeding

 we applied 28gm2 of traditional fescue/bent grass seed to help improve our surfaces, then a light drag to help get the seed into the core holes

 the greens and surrounds were top-dressed with sand to fill the core holes in and make a perfect bed for the new seed to germinate

 On certain greens we gave them extra aeration by using a 16mm hollow tine to take out more thatch, which will improve the surfaces

more sand to fill all the aeration holes

 Our new short game area that was just built this year is coming on really well and is now open for a few weeks before we close it for the winter period to allow it to fully establish for next season

 The weather was perfect last week to get another light top-dressing on the Craighead course greens before the rain that we got to help wash the sand into the profile

 Courses getting check by a couple of passing Chinook helicopters

 With the 12 weeks of drought we had this Summer, some of our fairways have suffered grass lose, so we borrowed a fairway disc seeder from Leven Links GC to allow us to try and get new seed into these weak areas before the end of the growing season to help recovery

 While we had this machine, we trialed it on a part of our 1st green on the Balcomie course to see what the results will be compared to our seeder

 With it coming to our financial year end, we had some money left in the budget to allow us to carry on repairing the dyke along side the Greenkeeping shed and coastal walk, this will help really tidy this area up and hopefully complete this task next year

 We have been out re-shaping the sand in the Greenside bunkers

 This week we are hosting the 2018 Ladies Senior British Open Amateur Championship on the Craighead course

 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