All go on the courses with the busy season, greens being cut and turf ironed most days to help keep pace on the surfaces 

Monthly spiking of greens over both courses to relieve surface compaction, allows water and air movement 

after the greens are cut & turf ironed you can't really see the spike marks and it does not affect play 

After the greens have been spiked we applied our monthly wetting agent and Seaweed, the spiking allows this product into the profile better then a light water in

We have been spot spraying the weed called Pearlwort that is in our greens, then we are spiking/seeding and sanding these small areas to aid recovery 

We have replaced another 3 tee sprinklers on the Craighead course that were worn and not working correctly, this will give us better water coverage to these tees going forward 

When we get a chance we are out seeding and divoting our fairways to aid in the recovery from all the play

Our drier fairways on the Balcomie course have been sprayed with a low rate of wetting agent and fertiliser then we have had our rain train to water in and help keep good grass coverage to these areas in the dry conditions 

Cutting, cleaning and raking of bunkers 

Greens and surrounds being cut on the Craighead course before play 

 

All go on our courses 🚜🌞

Greens over both courses being turf ironed after cutting to help maintain surface speed and smoothness  

 

Fairways on the Balcomie course being cut and grass clippings boxed off to keep a clean surface and less weeds seeds going back onto the surface 

A couple of weeks ago we lightly scarified the fairways to help cut out long ends and lateral growth then the clippings were collected, then we have applied a low rate of liquid fert etc to aid in plant strength to these areas, which should allow these areas to bounce back better after prolonged dry spells 

The Craighead course greens and PG's have had an application of granular fertiliser to help strengthen the plant then the fertiliser was washed in, this helps the fertiliser to start breaking down and being available to the plant

The day after fertilising, the greens were only slow turf ironed so not to take any fertiliser off the surfaces, then the next day we cut with grass boxes off again for the same reason to get the maximum affect from the fertiliser 

Courses have greened up nicely since the rain, but are getting dry again as we are back in a dry period 

We have been out hand watering bunker tops and high spots on greens etc to keep these areas hydrated, this also allows us to use less water as only targeting the drier areas 

Using the moisture meter over areas to check where needs watered and areas that we can leave to help give us better consistence across our greens and again helps reduce water usage

Moisture readings to help us gather the information of what moisture % we are at across our greens 

Greens being cut daily over both courses 

The Craighead course tees and walkways have had an application of slow release granular fertiliser to aid in plant strength, this product should last up to 3 months as it slowly breaks down over a longer period without flushes of growth

We are trialling rubber tees on certain bays on the driving range to allow golfers to use woods off the mats 

Courses slightly greening up since the rain last week, cutting over both courses was reduced due to the drought conditions and we focused on hand watering and divoting fairways  

We had a swing joint crack under the 14th tee sprinkler on the Craighead course 

Swing joint replaced 

We have now replaced and added more coastal warning signs on the Balcomie course to make walkers more aware of the dangers with golf being played 

our weaker/drier fairways on the Balcomie course have been getting watered with our rain trains at night 

The Craighead course greens have had an application of a granular fertiliser 

We have installed 2 frames so you can have your bicycles secure while at the Club 

Greens being turf ironed then an application of liquid fertiliser to aid in plant health 

We continue to cut areas of deep roughs to help pace of play over both courses 

The Balcomie greens have been spiked to a depth of 25mm to aid better air and water movement in the top profile 

Once greens cut & rolled you can't tell this work has been completed, we try to carry this out monthly during the season 

We are constantly checking our moisture levels in our greens over both courses, which in turn helps us use water more efficiently 

fairways being divoted on the Balcomie course 

Our drier fairways over both courses have been sprayed with a liquid fertiliser and wetting agent to help aid recovery in these drought conditions 

 

Very dry weather the last few weeks, courses playing very Linksy 

Greens being rolled then sprayed with liquid fert/Seaweed 

The planned Craighead course aeration work to the Greens has went well

This consisted of micro-hollow coring, clearing up cores, verti-cutting  

Then the greens were sand injected down to 150mm 

1.5 tons of sand applied with the sand injector 

Then a light top-dressing adding another 0.5 tons of sand to cover the seed and fill in the core holes, so in total this year so far we have applied over 5tons onto each green 

Green 18 - we carried out more work as felt this was a softer green and our last profile report proved this, so the extra work consisted of a deep hollow coring to a depth of 100mm with a 13mm tine, then cleared up then 6.5 tons of sand applied 

All greens brushed in then watered to wash in the sand and seed 

We have been carrying out repair work to the Craighead course irrigation system 

with the very dry weather we have been out hand watering high spots on the greens and newly turfed areas, we have only had 23mm of rain since late February, a complete change from last year  

When possible we have had our rain train out watering our drier fairways on the Balcomie course 

The Balcomie greens have been spiked to allow better water and air movement, once the greens were cut & rolled you can hardly tell this spiking was done 

We have taken samples from our Craighead course greens to be sent away to get tested to see where we are with nutrients & organic matter levels 

The Craighead greens are recovering really well from the aeration work, this work is essential to keep good healthy greens