Thursday 31st December 2015

We had the pumps going through the night to get most of the water off of the 2nd/4th fairway on the Burnside, the worst affected area.

As you can see it is almost all away

Of course Dangerous Jimmy was down raking about!!!

Yes, he is still here, we cant get rid of him!!

Sand bags at the ready for the next deluge which is due on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Monday 28th December 2015

Big slap on the wrist for me not updating the blog but here we go, next year I promise to keep it up to date!! Promise

Another tournament year, this time we welcomed The Amateur Championship won by Romain Langasque.

                                                                            

Overseeding carried on as normal before and after the event, trying to get as much fescue in as possible. All areas apart from the greens were sprayed with Rescue prior to The Amateur Championship as we try to wipe out ryegrass around the course. Rescue is a highly selective grass weed herbicide, for the removal of ryegrass whilst leaving fine turf grasses unaffected.

We were lucky enough to purchase a Super Compact Vredo to help out with overseeding.

We also purchased a new screen.

On to the Dunhill, and probably the best spell of weather we had all year.

 

Paul Lawrie out early for a few practice holes.

Down the left hand side of the 9th we removed 39 trees that were planted in the 1960s, this will now let some light in and help with air movement through to the 6th green of the Buddon as well as the 9th fairway.

Another tournament on the course before the end of the season was the World Hickory Open Championships

http://www.worldhickoryopen.com/

                                                                  

On to our Winter Improvements for this year: Replacing semi rough down the left hand side of the 10th and the right hand side of the 18th fairways.

Re-shaping and contouring the 13th approach/surround into the 14th tee

Bridges at the 18th green replaced with bridges donated from The Imlay Foundation

http://theimlayfoundation.org/

Work carried out by Boyles of Auchterarder with local Denfind Stone being used

http://www.boylesstonemasons.co.uk/index.html

http://www.denfindstone.co.uk/

A nice finish.

  

Reshaping of the spectator mound at the right hand side of the 5th tee, the mound extended over to the 6th fairway with the ditch being piped at the same time. The white teeing area raised up by about a foot.

                                      

A lot of material was moved about in the two weeks the contractors were here. We found sand under the mound which we thought was made up out of old waste.

Fortunately the Burnside were creating a new 16th green, so most of the sand went there.

So far we have returfed more than half the job and the rest will be completed after the Christmas period.

 

Other jobs on the go were moving the 6th walkway from tee to fairway further left

and the extension of the 18th yellow tee and red tee, another job that will be completed after the Christmas break.

We also have a few bunkers to re-build so another busy spell coming up.

Flooding!!

We cant complain I suppose as there are many areas/homes worse off than us.

Sandy back on the tools!!

More pumping today, lets hope that Wednesday isn't as bad with rain.

Saturday 27th December 2014

Well another good year on the Links 

We were really lucky with the weather through the summer, that's until we got to the Dunhill Links Championship when it really chucked it down.

I have not really been great with keeping the blog up to date this year and i have been trying to the last month but couldn't upload photos for some reason. 

I am back on track...hopefully! 

Winter works this year started in the last week of October, when we were able to take a bit of height off of a mound to the right of the 2nd walkway. As well as saving sand for other jobs, it will help with spectator movement during tournaments, freeing up a bit more space.

Main job this Winter was to lower the back of the 13th green.

This will help create more of an area for pin positions, not just for tournaments but for everyday play.

A job well done.

Next job on the list was lowering the mounds on the 3rd fairway. This fairway has always been a problem for us (extreme divot wear) and lowering the mounds would help spread the wear a bit more. 

The sand excavated from this job (75 tonnes) was then taken to the 8th Hogan tee.

At the 8th Hogan tee, we were only going to extend the tee back by 2 yards and also add 2 yards to the side (to free up a little more room for all the extras that come with a tournament clock,bins, fridge etc)  but once we got started adding sand we ended up going back another 8 yards and 6 yards to the side.

The tee now measures at 191 yards from the back. We re-turfed the tee with turf from the 9th Hogan tee, another tee that we are adjusting this Winter. We normally have a few jobs open during Winter Works as this is because we are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in the way of using the best of the turf from a few jobs to complete one/two jobs. Example: turf from 9th Hogan tee used at the 8th Hogan tee and to be used around the 10th green-side bunkers. 9th Hogan tee to be replaced with commercial turf. Confusing? Yes!! This also is the case for soil and sand where we try to get the most use out of it. 

So, the rest of the turf that was left from the 9th Hogan tee was used here at the 10th green.

The plan was to slightly lower the bunkers in height but we will compensate this by making the bunkers deeper. We always cut round these bunkers with a flymo but it just looked out of place.

The bunkers now fit in with the tight turf round about. More on the 9th Hogan tee the next time.

Another job to tick off the list was raising the bunker run ins at the 12th fairway.

We haven't done a lot of gorse work yet this Winter and the 15th is the only place we have been. 

Removal of gorse on top of the mounds to the left hand side of the fairway giving a more linksy feel.

Blog up to date for now anyway.

All the best for 2015!!