26/1/11

With the continuing mild weather we have been carrying on with work on the golf course, we finished cutting down the trees at the edge of the loch on 10. We also filled the last bunker on 14 with sand, that's all the new bunkers now complete. We only have to go back to the old bunkers and put a fresh edge on them for the new season. We have also finished of the new ladies tees on the course by finishing turfing the banks.






The greens are all at different stages of thawing out, as it stands the wee greens are on full. On the big course around about half of the greens are ready for play, if the weather carries on in the same manor we should hope to get a few more in play for the weekend but as you know it is all weather dependant. The greens are generally in good condition we are starting to lose a little bit of colour and as the different grasses lose the colour at different rates the uniformity of colour is not as it was during the growing season. This is a common thing to happen as the greens are not being fed during the winter months as if you feed them they can flush up and encourage a serious disease problem. If the greens are able to take it we will try roll them later in the week obviously this is weather dependant and how well the greens thaw out.

17/1/11

As i said in my previous post the courses are open again. The vast majority of all greens are clear of snow and ice, we still have a little on 2,5,8,10 and 12. We have tried to break up the ice as best as possible and clear the ice off as long as the ice wasn't sticking to the plant. We sprayed a fungicide on on the greens with a knapsack this should control any more disease that may try to break out and knock on the head the few patches of disease that have formed bellow the snow.

We have also been trying to re-secure the netting at the driving range it has come loose with the heavy snow and strong winds.

Carefully taking ice of the 2nd green.

View from the top of the hill.

16th fairway looking towards the green you can see the change from when i put the photo on last week.

17/1/11

After 50 days of snow coverage the golf courses reopened today. The Wee Piper is fully open and the Osprey Course is on the winter circuit. The reason the big greens are not on full is because they are still very soggy with all the snow and ice melt and also because of the heavy rain over the weekend. The greens have come out of the snow very well with only a few touches of disease around the collars.

14/01/11

Happy new year to one and all.

The golf course has been a no go zone in the last few weeks because we still had a good covering of snow and it was sheet ice below. We have been keeping the lodges and clubhouse clear of snow and gritted also we have chopping wood and kindling for the fire in the clubhouse. During the period of snow we have also started servicing and sharpening cutting units we have also started to paint the markers for next season.

The past couple of days had led to a decent thaw and we have lost most of the snow cover but we still have sheet ice over a majority of the courses hopefully with the thaw over the weekend we should get rid of a majority of the snow and ice but as usual that is obviously weather dependant.

9th fairway, trees have been thinned and limbed but you can see the ice on the fairway.

16th fairway looking towards the green.

Markers have had brown coat only needing the colours freshened up on the ends.