Turf delivered

We received a delivery today of 1200 sqm of turf. The majority was for jobs on the Old course, we however needed 500 sqm to close up two jobs on the Jubilee's 12th hole.

We usually have plenty of turf from our own Turf nursery, however the demand this year was so high, it has forced the Links to buy in turf to complete various projects.



Here we see the last pallet of turf being offloaded. Each pallet had 70 rolls of 1sqm each. These were then loaded onto trailers and taken out to the various jobs. I had my entire team on the job, and we managed to get all the turf down in a few hours.

Composting work

The courses were closed today because of the frost coming out of the ground. Work plans were similar to yesterday........ie Bunker topping up, shaping to an area on the Jub and composting work.


2 years ago, the Links made the decision to begin composting some of their waste products. We build up a large quantity of grass clippings (every area except semi rough is boxed off) and during the winter we collect a pile of gorse shreddings. Wetook advice from various composting organisations and decided to try and produce our own green compost.

We decided on the location of the project and started to mix our grass and gorse in a 1:1 ratio. We have had mixed results, from being too wet, to being too dry. Last years mix was on the dry side, and remains quite coarse and of more use to gardeners than to golf courses. This year we have purchased a 360 excavator for construction changes to the Jubilee course, and this will be an ideal machine to carry out composting activities this summer.

The picture below shows the composting area being cleared and organised for this years compost.

The compost will be organised into a number of rows. Row 1 contains the initial mix of grass and gorse.......


The second row which is 3 months old.........

The third row is over 6 months old,and is the finished product......


close up of the finished article, now being given away for free from our composting area......

Tomorrow we have some turf coming from England to close up an area on the 12th hole of the Jubilee. Hopefully it will come fairly sharp, and not be late, because the forecast is for frost, therefore the turf that arrives tomorrow needs to go down tomorrow.

Course flooded.

The snow has cleared from the course, but we are now experiencing flooding because the underlying ground is still frozen. The Jubilee and New courses were unplayable today because of the water lying on the surfaces. Who would want to play today anyway?????We have had constant rainshowers all morning, coupled with a 30mph north easterly wind. It feels bitter! and to think it is nearly March.



The guys made the most of the weather today, and started to top up bunkers with sand. We are concentrating on the Jubilee course today, and have used 15T of Bunkerrite sand so far.

Gary and Kenny continued with their Composting work at BBQ hill. They have now cleared a massive area, and have organised the compost heap into 3 mounds which will be turned more frequently than last year. (possibly once a month)

Tom carried out Level 2 assessing work with one of our sandpatching team, and I updated risk assessments onto my new management database.

The weather is looking to be horrendous for the forseeable future.

Courses still closed

The snow is still lying here on the Links. The Jubilee being closest to the sea, has the least amount of snow coverage, but the greens continue to have a covering of the white stuff.

Training on machinery set up continued, with the guys oil changing all the pedestrian mowers, scarifiers and strimmers.

We tested the vibration levels of our chainsaws today, and found them to have a high vector sum, which results in a reduced usage time. Typically, a 4 hour continuous session with the chainsaw will result in a points total of over 500. This is over the maximum allowed exposure to HAV. My risk assessment for chainsaw use expects the operator to rest for the same amount of time that the machine is used, this "scaling factor of 0.5" allows the operator to nearly use the chainsaw all day. We also swap the operators after 4 hours to minimise vibration levels.

Over the past month we have measured a number of machines for vibration. The most unusual has been the turf iron with 3hours continuous use giving levels over 100 points (1st action level).
Expected high levels have come from the turfcutter, flymo's and strimmers. We hope to have all the vibration measurements carried out before the legislation comes into force this year.

Elsewhere on the courses, we cut some more gorse from heather beds on the New and continued with the composting work at BBQ hill.

Snow cover on the Links

The New and Jubilee courses have had a covering of snow for the past 3 days now. This is unusual because most of Fife, including Glenrothes is clear.

The courses were closed after an initial inspection at 9am, the snow is certainly starting to clear now, but the greens and aprons are still covered.

Jobs today, like most of the past two months, have concentrated on training, gorse management and composting work.

I have given two younger greenkeepers, Stuart and Mike, the responsibility of machinery set up this year. Tom, my senior greenkeeper, will be responsible for their training, and will keep records of work carried out. He is in the process of training them today on unit setting, and recording of information.

Gorse cutting continues on the New course. Unlike the Jubilee, the New does not have towering dunes, but instead has valuable heathland habitat. Gorse being gorse...likes to encroach into these areas and must be taken back to an extent where the heather is not suffocated. We are chipping the material and taking it to our composting area at a place called BBQ hill.

The area at BBQ hill is also being cleared today, of last years composting work. 50T of compost has been deposited near the perimeter fence for free uplift by locals. We are also clearing a large central area to prepare this years compost. The work is carried out with a 7T 360 excavator, driven by our own lads.

Forecast is for the cold spell to continue till the weekend, and has the possibility of prolonged snow showers Wed/Thu.

Use of blogs.

I have found it very difficult,to keep updating a blog on a regular basis. However I have just gone back to read last years entries to my blog on the Bigga central section website, and found them to be fascinating, and helpful. They not only show what was carried out, but how far behind we are this year.

This time last year I was handwatering, and having problems with lateral growth of the bentgrass. This year I still have construction work to finish, and have only cut grass on a few occasions, as for handwatering hahaha!!!

It looks like a cold week ahead, so jobs will focus on training, gorse management, turfing (1250 sqm is being delivered on Tue), and vibration testing of machinery.