The Craighead course greens have recovered well from the major aeration work 4 weeks ago to reduce our thatch levels and to improving our surfaces

 We applied another top-dressing of sand to aid the recovery of the Craighead course greens this week

 We are at our full cutting program over both courses due to the dry warm weather

 Staff busy trying to keep up with the growth of all areas

 We have been having our irrigation system on every night due to the dry weather for the last 3 weeks, which operates from 10pm to about 5.30am so it wont interfere with play plus lower temperatures at night so not too scorch the grass plant

 We have applied our wetting agent and seaweed to the Balcomie course greens this week

 An application of selective herbicide was applied to the Craighead course tees to reduce daises

We have been noticing slight damage and hatching from leather jackets which turn into daddy long legs, I'm sure most courses are having the same issue as we have no insecticides to spray to control them now on the market

 May this weather continue

 The Craighead course greens are recovering well from the major aeration work that was carried out to reduce thatch levels, improve drainage and air movement through the soil structure, which will result in firmer surfaces

 We are hoping the greens will be fully recovered in another 2 weeks

 It's that time of year that we spray for weeds, mostly daises we suffer from so we applied a selective herbicide to all the fairways on both courses

 With us using the irrigation systems more with irrigating to keep the plant moisture levels up, watering in fert and washing in sand, we have been having bursts on the old Balcomie course system

 The old PVC pipe work coming to the end of it's life expectancy plus the glued joints

 Another issue we are having is the old electric cabling for the irrigation system needing repairs

It's great to see all the wildflowers in bloom round both our courses

 The courses are really taking shape now and going into the season in good condition despite the bad winter

 We have completed our wildflower area on the driving range, which consisted of cutting and collecting the area

 rotovate the area 2 ways to prepare the surface and bury the left over vegetation

 light rake and firmed up then seeded

 light rake and firmed up again to bury the seed

 We have levelled and seeded the old drain line at the 15th semi-rough on the Balcomie course

The guys did a great job cutting back the flowerbed at the Clubhouse putting green area

Short term pain for long term gain

 This week was our major aeration work to the Craighead course greens which we carry out every 2nd year

 Deep solid tining to 9" to break up any compaction to allow more air movement and drain better

 Then we double scarified them with a 2mm blade to a depth of 20mm, this is to take out as much thatch as possible to help us maintain firm greens

 then the greens were double verti-cut then cut to help clean the surfaces up

 over seeded to get as much seed down the scarifying lines as possible

 then 3 passes with sand to give them a heavy top-dress to help fill in the lines and cover the new seed, we will top-dress again next week as we are trying to apply at least 3/4 tons per green to further reduce the thatch levels

 A light rub in then turf iron

We will be lightly soaking the greens daily to wash in the sand and keep the new seed damp

 This week our focus was on setting up the Craighead course for the 72 hole Battle Trophy this weekend

 With the warmer weather it was ideal to catch on painting the starters hut, course toilets and water fountain

 Protecting the tees from the practice rounds

results after day 1 from rounds 1 & 2

 At last some great weather to allow us to get on, That's us started our wetting agent/seaweed program to the greens

 We have applied our spring fertiliser to the Craighead course greens to kick start them for the Battle Trophy and the season

 We have now managed to screen sand and finish topping up bunkers with fresh sand and all the newly built bunkers are now back into play

 The newly built 3rd & 7th tees on the Balcomie course have had their first cut and are also back into play

 7th Medal tee

We have started to seed and top up the new drainage lines at the start of the 2nd fairway on the Craighead course