The irrigation project is going really well on the Balcomie course with 14 holes completed, plus the new short game area and main putting green completed too, they are in the process of updating the electric decoders on the Craighead course to all work off the same control panel and computer as the new Balcomie course system

 The last fairway bunker on hole 8 on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt

 the 17th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course has been rebuilt

 The Craighead course fairways have been slit tined for the 4th time to relieve compaction and help in surface drainage

 Our in-house new signs are ready to go out on the Balcomie course

 We have now made a lid for our new Railway sleeper bin at the 14th tee path on the Balcomie course

With the decent weather we have been able to re-paint our Railway sleeper bunker at hole 14 to help preserve the wood

Happy New Year

 That's us back at full staff after the Xmas period, so we have been back out slit tining greens and surrounds on the Balcomie course

 Slit tining fairways on the Balcomie course

 Cutting fairways behind to tidy up the surfaces

 We have also been hollow-coring certain tees on both courses to help reduce thatch levels and the cores have been re-used at the 8th fairway side of the new 15/16 dyke that was rebuilt before Xmas on the Craighead course

 We are now rebuilding the last 2 fairway bunkers on hole 8 on the Balcomie course

 We have a damaged old field drain before our burn on the 10th fairway of the Balcomie course, which we are hoping to have fixed by the end of this week

 The Balcomie course new irrigation system install is going great with 11 holes fully completed

 11th medal tee irrigation being installed

 11th medal tee

 10th green and surround irrigation being installed

 Wiring up and testing of the new sprinklers

We have build another Railway sleeper bin and ball washer stand which has been placed at the 14th tee on the Balcomie course, we are in the process of building a lid for these 2 new bins after seeing how they are in the windy conditions

We are also replacing and adding new signs on the Balcomie course, using the same theme of Railway sleepers to fit in

 Both courses looking well going into the winter months

 Giving all surfaces a cut going into the Xmas period before going down to a skeleton staff till after the new year

 Congratulations to Nick Horsfield our 1st assistant on his 25 years service at the Club

 The 11th left greenside bunker was rebuilt on the Balcomie course

 The surrounding area at the newly built dyke at holes 15/16 on the Craighead course has been levelled off and turfed

 We have now started to re-turf the golf course side of the newly built banking at hole 13 on the Craighead course

 We have made a start to our next big winter project of re-levelling the 7th red/yellow tee on the Balcomie course

 The pathway will be widen by 600mm and we will then build a railway sleeper bank on the tee side of the path which will incorporate 2 sets of steps, bench and bin/ball washer etc

 All the greens and tees on the Craighead course were slit tined to a depth of 6" to relieve compaction

 The Balcomie course fairways were all brushed then cut to remove worm casts and tidy them up for the Xmas period, the plan was to complete the same work to the Craighead course fairways but this has been delayed due to the wet ground conditions 

 We have made a start to rebuilding the 8th fairway bunker on the Balcomie course, this will hopefully be completed before Xmas, weather pending

 The new Balcomie course irrigation install is going great and on schedule with 8 holes completed and 3 holes partially completed going into the Xmas break

 Installing the new irrigation pipework, cables & sprinklers to tee 12, green 8 & 11

 I have been trying my hand at some joinery, we have a real issue here at Crail with high winds damaging our tee bin lids etc, so I'm trying to continue to use the railway sleeper theme throughout the course by building bins out of railway sleepers, these should last for years as solid wood, we have also tried to re-use our old bottom blades from our greens mowers to connect the sleepers together

The first built bin has been put at the 18th tee on the Balcomie course

 On Saturday 30th November, we had a very interesting and insightful presentation and tour of the Greenkeeping department to members and members of the Committee to let them see behind the scenes and what all goes on

 Tour of the new shed extension and an update on the new irrigation project

 At last dry enough to get back to levelling off the surrounding area at the newly built dyke at 15/16 on the Craighead course

 The guys are doing a great job finishing this area off, which will be used as a maintenance track in the future

 Our irrigation project is going really well and is on schedule with 35% work completed to date. the 90mm main pipeline is completed round the course plus extra hose points at fairways 4,5,8,10 & 15 

 Next step was the irrigation designer Adrian Mortram on site to mark out and measure all the sprinkler heads for holes 1 to 14 on greens, surrounds and tees plus fairways 2 & 12

then all these points have been GPS'd plus the mains line for the future and will be on a plan which will be on the pump-house wall

 The irrigation company are working at the 12th Green and surround this week installing the lateral pipe work, cables and sprinklers, then they will start the 12th & 2nd fairways

 the final boxes being installed on the main pipeline at 17th tees

 lateral pipework and sprinklers being installed at 14th green & surround 

They have hit rock rear of the 14th tees down to the coastline along the path, across the 17th fairway and at the 17th medal tees laying the 90mm mains pipework, which has all been dug out to get the pipe to the correct depths

 The newly built railway sleeper steps are completed from the Clubhouse to the Putting green with anti-slip grips on each step, these will be in use from the start of the season to allow the surrounding turf to establish 

A new heavy duty fence is being built to help hide the rubbish bins and the new back up fuel tank for the Clubhouse heating system