We have been applying a growth regulator to our greens and surrounds on the Balcomie course to help reduce top growth

 spiking on the Balcomie course greens to help relieve surface tension

just trying to keep up with the cutting, other jobs were to verti-cut greens, strimming work and cutting and cleaning of the burn

Cut, cut and more cutting

This week it's just been trying to keep up with all the cutting and turf ironing greens to help keep speed on the putting surfaces. we had to spray insecticide on certain fairways of the Craighead course as we seem to have a problem with leatherjackets and all the Balcomie course fairways were sprayed with selective herbicide

 The Craighead greens have had more sand again then turf ironed and vibrate roll plus a liquid fertiliser to aid recovery

I attended a seminar on new tools available for measuring/testing the smoothness and moisture levels of your greens etc

This week we have continued to apply more sand to the Craighead greens to help fill the core hole in. other tasks have been to keep up to date with machine maintenance, lower cutting heights, re-painting direction arrows in car parks, spraying weeds in gorse areas and upping our cutting programs

 Our newly levelled and turfed 5th tee is back in play now

 the next step in our aeration plans is to top-dress then over seed then more top-dressing

 side view of the scarifying

we have a demo brush in at present to see how efficient it is at filling the core holes with the top-dressing compared to our existing brush

Aeration work/a breath of fresh air

 We have started our major aeration work to the Craighead greens, which I know we won't be popular with the members but this is a must to reduce thatch levels, help drainage and firm up the putting surfaces and improve plant health and produce better greens for the future

 first off we hollow cored to a depth of 3" with a 16mm tine then cleaned up

 a single pass with the scarifying units at a depth of 18mm with a 2mm blade

 blow and clean up all the debris

 double verti-cut then cut to clean up the surfaces

 all the cores etc taken out of the greens will be all re used on our drainage line to fill in low areas and level off areas a round the new man holes