The reduced Green staff are doing a great job trying to keep up with the maintenance over both courses & driving range etc, when possible we are trying to turf iron greens behind cutting to help smooth off the surfaces and add a little surface speed 

Greens being cut then turf ironed, the last 3 weeks have been damp/dewy mornings which doesn't help with surface pace due to a wet cut 

Preparing courses for daily play 

We have started to target weaker greens and carrying out some TLC, greens 5,6 & 10 on the Balcomie course have been spiked, over seeded 2 ways, heavily top-dressed, brushed in then a liquid fertiliser applied to improve the surfaces by incorporating more finer grasses and sand into the profile which is much needed 

top-dressing after the seeding to cover the seed and smooth off the surfaces 

Then greens slowly brushed to work in the sand to fill in the spike holes & cover the seed, which makes an ideal seed bed 

Then watered in, these greens will be lightly watered daily to keep the seed damp to help it germinate 

It's all these small jobs that we have struggled to carry out with being reduced staff, trimming of the fairway discs and sprinkler heads over both courses, these jobs make a massive difference in presentation 

The new short game area maturing well and being well used, this has been a great addition on our driving range 

 We have a junior member Ross Mallory who is helping us out on work experience for the last couple of weeks before he goes to College to study Greenkeeping, hopefully this will help him in his studies with getting some practical experience beforehand and getting used to the very early starts 

The courses have really greened up since the rain at the end of July 

10th green and surround on the Craighead course, recovering well from the drought 

We are still at reduced staff which means we are at reduced cutting of all areas, when cutting our fairways we usually collect the grass clippings but with being at reduced staff this job has been stopped 

holes 5 & 6 on the Balcomie course 

We have been out over seeding weak areas on the Balcomie course tees 

Greens being cut, holes changed and a liquid fertiliser and iron being sprayed to aid recovery from the drought 

With the rain our playing surfaces are slightly slower due to the increase in growth so when possible we have been turf ironing behind cutting to improve the surfaces 

Green 15 on the Balcomie course 

An irrigation burst at green 5 on the Craighead course, this will be fixed in-house 

Cutting of the 17th fairway on the Balcomie course in front of play 

 We have applied a granular fertiliser to the Balcomie course tees to help aid recovery from the drought

 Then we watered in the fertiliser

 holes 5 & 6 on the Balcomie course

 We have invested in a new moisture meter to allow us to use water more efficiently 

 We had Malcolm our M&H Convener helping rake bunkers as we are still on a reduced staff levels

Certain fairways on the Balcomie course have been sprayed with a selective herbicide to reduce daisies

 This week we managed to cut, clean, shape and rake the Balcomie course bunkers

 We sprayed a liquid fertiliser & iron on the Craighead course greens & surrounds, both our putting greens and short game green

 Lewis our apprentice is coming on great with his cutting of the greens. with the weather turning dry we are starting to only cut greens every second day and turf ironing in-between days to help reduce stress

 We have been out hand watering high spots and dry areas on our greens

We have replaced 2 greens sprinklers on green 10 of the Craighead course due to worn gearing but no shame to them as 24 years old

One of our Greenkeepers Michael is leaving us today to take up another position closer to home at Craigtoun Meadows Caravan park, Michael has worked with us for the last 14 years and we all wish him well in his new career

 The reduced greenkeeping team are doing a great job in keeping up with the essential maintenance over both courses etc

 Both courses have really greened up since the rain which has really helped reduce the stress on the surfaces, but in turn has made the greens surface speed lower due to the extra growth, so if we have manage we will turf iron after cutting to help increase the speed

 All surfaces are now growing harder due to the rainfall and heat in the last couple of weeks

 Our wildflower area on our driving range is starting to bloom

 We have managed to cut and set up our driving range just in time for it opening on Monday 6th July

 Same with our short game area & PG's all ready to be opened on Monday 6th July

 With having a reduced staff it's been very difficult to carry out any work to the bunkers over both the courses, but we have managed to cut and clean all the bunker faces, rake and weed all bunkers apart from the newly built bunkers from the winter and these will stay G.U.R until further notice but all other bunkers will be back in play from Monday 6th July, we are hoping to fully rake the bunkers once a week

We have turned the Craighead course hole cups back to the correct way and have added foam to the bottom of the pins to see how this works compared to the cups being upside down, this should help reduce balls bouncing back out the hole

The courses are starting to green up since the rain, this will help reduce the stress on all the playing surfaces from the 11 weeks of no rain

The reduced Greenstaff are doing a great job on keeping up with essential maintenance to the main playing surfaces during this pandemic 

Early morning watering of greens & surrounds, our irrigation system mostly works between the hours of 10pm and 5am as this doesn't affect any maintenance or golf, lower temperatures so less evaporation of water during the night plus usually calmer winds so better water coverage to all playing surfaces

Most of our cutting has been reduced to about 50% each week apart from our greens which are being cut every day, thank you to the members for being patient and understanding during this pandemic as we are not at the usual course standards

 watering in of fertiliser and wetting agent products on the Balcomie course greens

 All greens over both courses & PG's have had an application of wetting agent and fertiliser applied

When we get a chance we have been making headway into getting bunkers ready to be put back into play by weeding, cutting faces and raking and shaping the sand, this is a very slow process due to the reduced staffing levels at the moment

Any newly rebuilt bunkers from the winter will be getting the same treatment to tidy them up but these will stay G.U.R until we get the chance to dig the sand out, re-shape the bases then add fresh new sand 

 Both courses are now really starting to turn brown and playing as they should a true Links

We have reduced cutting even more to reduce stress to all playing areas until we receive some rain. we have only had 17mm of rain since the end of March

With the reduced cutting it's allowed us to concentrate on hand watering of high spots on greens and certain weaker tees, also we have had sprinklers out on our 1st fairway to help this area, fingers crossed for some rain 💧to help us through