December 2017

13/12/17, Not a lot happening on the courses just now but at least someone has found it constructive .

13/12/17. Snow and hard frosts seem to be the norm at present . Hope it clears soon so we can get some golf !

November 2017

6/11/17. Digger in to clean out pond at 10th .

6/11/17. All vegetation will be taken out . Pond wasn't drained to help minimise the wildlife impact on doing this work.

9/11/17 . Both our deep aeration machines have been out de compacting the Fairways on Hawkshill. 7" depth. 

6/11/17. Forest  removal to the right of 15th is nearly finished . Good to see some light coming through to this part of the course in a morning , normally it would be in the shade all day as sun is too low at this time of the year. 

13/ 11/17 . Badgers at this time of year can be very disruptive to turf  digging for grubs and worms . 

14/11/17. Put up hoops to deter golfers from walking over the weak turf to give grass a chance of recovery  only for badgers to rip it up .

14/11/17. Spraying on a turf hardener for the winter months. Iron , Calcium ,and Potassium , with a little added penetrant wetting agent to help water travel downwards through the soil profile.

16/11/17. Staff removing branches that are hanging down too low on pine ,birch and alder trees.

20/11/17. Channel drain installed on the path at the 11th on Swailend .

21/11/17. Finished drain at the 11th path on Swailend.

16/11/17. All lower branches are removed to make it easier to cut around and for golfers to play away from .

October 2017 cont..

16/10/17. New matted path from 6th green on Swailend through to the 7th tee.This is to save the area beside bunker and the tee banking getting damaged .

16/10/17. Trees in woodland right of the 15th hole slowly getting taken down.

23/10/17.We have  Chris pearson aeration services  in with his Air 2 go machine this week  . This machine pushes three 12" inch length probes into the rootzone of the green then pressurised air is forced out creating a fracturing effect , which breaks up compaction. Probes are a metre apart . Both courses are going to be done . 

27.10.17. This article is related to a ban by the European union on the chemical used to control worm casts . This will cast up a lot of issues with Greenkeping course presentation . (pardon the pun)

26/10/17.One of our staff Dennis Grant is part of a new initiative to get young greenkeepers more educated in all aspects of greenkeeping by ways of better training and education. YGC (young greenkeepers committee ) was lauched at Auchterarder golf club where Dennis was part of a 4 man team to promote this aim. There was also a course walk on the Gleneagles courses  by the Head Greenkeepers there ,

October 2017

3/10/17. Total rain fall since start of August. 252.7mm

3/10/17 . Chris Lamb does well at Greenkeeper National Championships.

4/10/17. Trees behind 16th tee (in forrest) getting taken down by the forestry commission. This will make a big difference to the sun light coming onto the tees and 15th green.

9/10/17. Hollow coring started on Hawkshill . Some problems with some cores not coming out of the ground . As August and September were particularly wet the ground conditions were slightly damp ; which caused cores to be sucked back into the ground (like a vacumn) , and not taken out by the tine . We were then held up due to changing the tines from top eject tines to side eject tines.We got going and staff were putting there own touch to clearing the greens very artistic patterns the guys were making :-) 

10/10/17. Eventually we got going and with a good team effort we managed to get all Hawkshill done and then started  Swailend .

Top tine is a top eject hollow tine and the bottom one is a side eject hollow tine .

11/10/17. Updated weather station readings . This is from the start of August when I installed the station.

September cont...

14/9/17. Trees at the 1st  getting thinned out , this will help make better viewing from clubhouse of the 1st hole

14/9/17.

14/9/17.

19/9/17. View from the  putting green. It has fairly opened up the hole.

19/9/17. Squirrel box on tree next to club , lets hope we get a few to use it  .

22/9/17. The rain gauge doesn't seem to stop mounting up . Now sitting at 233.9mm of rain since start of August.

September 2017

10/9/17 .All worth it in the end to see the local team pull through to win this title . well played lads .

Some nice comments from the players.

8/9/17. Both courses were getting used on Friday and tee off 7.30am so meant 5am starts .

8/9/17, Early morning for the staff on Friday , just as well we had both lights on .

10/9/17, Great week just a pity the rain tried to spoil the week.

4/9/17. Scottish area team championships this week . Hopefully weather plays ball .Courses were looking good at the weekend with greens running very nice .

8/9/17. Being a Greenkeeper does have some perks :-) . Beautiful skies this morning.

12/9/17 . Double scarification of the greens on Swailend .

12/9/17. This will help remove any thatch that's built up and cuts open any moss that is visible .

13/0/17, Weather station rain gauge this morning at 9am . This is the rain fall since start of August when the Weather station was set up. 185mm of rain ( 7 and a 1/2 inches of rain +.

14/9/17. No end to the rain at present . This was at 9am 

14/9/17. This is the 15th fairway on Swailend .

19/9/17. Rain gauge  shows 216.7mm of rain from start of August (when weather station was installed) to now. That's a serious amount of rain .

August 2017

21/8/17 6th hole on Hawkshill looking very smart , Heather on the hill starting to flourish with purple flowers.  

28/8/17 Spiked the 12th tee on Hawkshill down to the depth of the drainage carpet 8" .  Then unfortunately someone with a buggy spoiled the look of the tee. The tee has now been topdressed , overseeded and brushed. Along with this tee 14,15 and 16th were also done .

July 2017

27/7/17. Verti cutting greens on Hawkshill.

27/7/17. Double pass on greens .

15/7/17. New weather station now up and running , ready to monitor and store useful information .

27/7/17 . Verti cutting helps to aid vertical growth of grass , cutting off horizontal blades of grass , removes seed heads  . this will help speed up greens , and creates a smoother putting surface .

27/7/17. Brushing greens will lift up any seed heads and grass that was missed by verti cutting .

27/7/17. After brushing Greens , they were cut again .

31/7/17. Terraspiking greens on Hawkshill . 8mm solid tines going in at 7" depth .

31.7.17, This Aeration work is vitally important in keeping grass healthy, promoting better root development , better drainage , and airing the rootzone .

31.7/17. To check the working depth of the  machine , we use a tie wrap which inserted into the  tine hole gives us a measurement , then we put it up against the depth sticker on the machine.

31/7/17. Topdressing greens . 

31/7/17. Brushing in the Topdressing. .

31/7/17. Checking depth with a tie wrap.