Course Manager's Diary

As this is our first report of 2025, Happy New Year to all our members, we hope you all had a great festive period with family and friends.

December was a wet end to the year with approximately 77mm of rain, although with a combination of roped off areas and extensive aeration work across the main playing areas, the course has coped very well. January started with another heavy batch of rain soon followed by a light covering of snow and ice. In the few days after this we had another covering of snow and freezing temperatures which led to the course being closed for over two weeks.

Thankfully we saw a dramatic rise in the temperatures, although a combination of freezing ground conditions and nowhere for the water to go saw large volumes of water and ice on the course.

With conditions being so cold the frost took the best part of a week to fully thaw on some areas of the course. It is particularly important during these times to protect the greens as root shear has long term implications and is very damaging to the health of our greens. This process happens when we have a deep ground frost, and it begins to thaw leaving our greens frozen underneath and soft in the top part of the profile. Any traffic over the greens during these times would lead to root shear caused by the movement in the turf with the frozen profile just below meaning there is no give in the ground which results in the roots being broken away from the turf at a very shallow depth, leaving our greens unstable and could massively damage the plant health.

Tree Limbing and Tidy Up
During the cold snap it wasn’t all bad. This offered us a fantastic opportunity to cut back low hanging branches which was impacting the movement of equipment and playability. With somewhere between 40-50 trailer loads being removed off the course it has made a dramatic difference.

The snow and frozen ground provided perfect conditions to drive over the course with minimal traffic damage.

18th Hole Redevelopment Updates
A lot of our focus while the weather has been onside has been pushing on our new 18th hole with various tasks being conducted.

All four of the new bunkers have now been lined with resin bases. All bunkers were completed in three days thanks to our team working on late and some great weather to allow the bases to set.

18th Green Maintenance
We have been regularly cutting and rolling the new 18th green, working on the levels and firmness of the green to allow it to settle. Both the 18th and putting green were fed with a slow-release granular fertiliser so it continues to supply the necessary nutrition through the remaining winter months.

The 18th green has also recently been top dressed and had its first aeration since it has been re-laid. This was done with a 5/8th solid tine at two-inch spacings and a 3-inch depth. It is important to push the green on early and conducting this solid tine will increase root development and allow air and water movement through the profile. The sand dressing will help level out any low points on the green with all sand we worked in by hand using brushes. It has since been rolled.

Our new putting green is starting to have an incredibly good body of grass given it has been established battling the elements of a Scottish winter.

18th Fairway and Apron
The 18th fairway has had its first cut and has been shaped up to roughly where we would like it to be for the upcoming season, although we will no doubt make some adjustments along the way. The fairway has also been deep Verti-drained to around 7-inches to help with water movement and root development.

The apron area has been solid tined to around 4 inches to help the roots start chasing. The area has also been cut to encourage the turf to thicken up and increase sward density.

We will continue this work at given opportunities through the winter months to push on the 18th hole which will increase the quality and playability of all turf areas come the opening of the hole for which we cannot wait.

18th Hole Tree Planting
A massive thank you to Mike Andrew and a number of volunteers who have helped plant the best part of 100 trees along the new 18th hole.

The first batch were planted up the right of the 18th to help further develop the protection to the neighbouring park. The tree line will be grown in as wild rough to create a frame up that side and also separate the practice area from the new 18th hole.

Since then, Course Manager, Course Convenor and our tree specialist Mike Andrew considered planting more trees to create a frame of the hole and divide the 18th hole from the 16th teeing areas, short game practice area and also closing off the view of the car park over time. The work has since been completed and what a job all the volunteers have done, thank you all.

Huge thanks to Mike for his expertise and time.

It will be great to see them all grow and become an integral part of a memorable finishing hole.

Storm Eowyn
We have recently felt the full impact of storm Eowyn, losing multiple trees and several others being snapped or damaged. The once in a generation storm will take our team some time to fully recover from.

On a positive note, all our main playing areas are damage free and once all debris and trees are removed, we should have no long-term effects of the storm.

Our tractor blower was going nonstop in the immediate days after the storm, along with backpack blowers for greens and bunkers to tidy up the mess that was left behind.

Now we are on top of the general tidiness of the course our attention will turn to cutting up and removing fallen trees from the course. Please stay away from any damaged or fallen trees for your own safety. Thank you everyone and I hope everyone is safe and well after the horrendous storm.

Just like that it is December already, where has the year gone? It has been a very busy year for our team and it’s one we will remember with fond memories. From a very successful Club Championships to hosting the Lothians Matchplay Championships for the first time since 1949. The feedback we have received from both members and visitors has been fantastic and makes all the early starts and late nights worthwhile knowing the results are so greatly appreciated.

Thankfully November’s weather was fairly kind to us with below average rainfall for the month (29mm). Things changed in December with a very wet start. In the first nine days of the month, we recorded over 30mm of rainfall leading to some areas of the course becoming extremely wet underfoot, and a closure on Saturday 7th. It will stay wet in some areas for a time so please take care on the course and select appropriate footwear for the winter conditions.

All course protection ropes are now out on the course, please don’t move any ropes unless it’s interfering with your shot – in which case please replace it afterwards. On occasion we have noticed that the ropes have been moved, please refrain from doing so, our course team will move the ropes as and when required.

Autumn Leaf Blowing
As much as Autumn is a lovely time of year to look at the trees and see the colour changes, it’s a terrible time for golf and a challenge for our team to keep on top of leaf blowing. This is a constant battle for around eight weeks to try and keep the course as tidy as possible. Thankfully we are now almost at the end of the Autumn fall.

Cutting Practices
Due to the mild weather at the start of November cutting was still ongoing to keep ahead of the unseasonal growth.

The height of cut has been increased in all areas to protect the course through the winter months.

All cutting tasks will still be ongoing throughout the winter as and when the weather allows to keep playing conditions as good as we possibly can.

18th Hole update
Very soon after the new 18th green had been laid, we quickly started pushing the green on with the start of the 2025 season being our main focus.

As we highlighted in the final 18th hole redevelopment update, the green was sprayed with a fungicide to try and reduce disease pressure. It was overseeded with a mixture of dwarf rye and bent grasses to try and recover disease scars and struggling areas.

It was then sand dressed with 1.5 tonnes of pro golf 20 sand, which was hand brushed in to low points and joins of the turf.

Finally, an organic granular feed was applied to help aid recovery of the turf and this was watered in.

We have since been regularly rolling the turf to work on the smoothness of the green this will continue right through winter. The green has now had its first cut (at the height of 9mm) since being laid. This will gradually decrease as we come to the start of next season, although it is very important not to go too low too early as the green isn’t yet as smooth as the other greens on the course, therefore we risk scalping the turf which wouldn’t recover until well into next season. We have been regularly rolling the new practice putting green with the hand mowers. The new seed is starting to come through nicely.
The apron immediately around the green has also had its first cut at the height of 14mm.

As you will all be aware the path leading back to the clubhouse when finishing your round is becoming very muddy with the volume of use. Sadly, we have looked into all other options and this is the only safe route off the golf course for the time being. Please stick to the rubber mats.

Please can I also ask for everyone to keep off all new turf. We are still frequently seeing people walking all over the new turf. It is important we allow the turf to properly take which will speed up the establishment of the turf in the long run.

New 18th bunkers
The new bunkers on the 18th hole and practice area are starting to take shape.
We have created ledges so the bunkers have a defined shape and a ledge for the resin base to bind into which will leave a flat surface for turf to finish off the bunker edge.

All bunkers have been drained. Our team have been busy working out type 1 hardcore and back filling drainage lines with pea gravel.

We then went on to compacting the type 1 base to leave a sturdy base for our resin to sit on.

In the coming weeks when the temperatures allow, we will be applying the resin base to the bunkers which will create the base ready for sand to be applied.

Greens aeration
With recent wet weather and high disease pressure we have carried out some aeration to our greens. It is very important to keep airflow and water moving through the profile and off the surface to keep them in a healthy condition.
This work causes minimal disruption to the greens. we are going a depth of around 4-inches, at a 2-inch spacing. All greens were rolled soon after the work being completed.

This will be our last aeration work until January when we will be verti-draining our greens to help relieve compaction at a deeper depth.

From all of our Course Team, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

October has been a very busy month for our team with a lot of turf refinement and aeration work being carried out over all main playing areas of the course. This is a very important time of the season for us to try and strengthen conditions on the course before we hit the depths of the winter months.

Throughout October we have seen very mild conditions which means we are seeing a fair amount of growth across the course which is great for the recovery from the recent maintenance programme, but it also means regular cutting practices are still ongoing. We are also currently battling the leaves at this time of year, so we are blowing on a daily basis. Sadly, our tractor mounted blower is off the road at the moment, this is our only large-scale piece of equipment for leaf control, so it’s been hard work without it. We are hopeful it will be repaired soon although the replacement part required is taking some time to arrive. Massive thanks to Greentech for allowing us to borrow their tractor mounted blower in the meantime.

Maintenance stage 1
The first stage of our Autumn maintenance work was scarifying all greens, aprons and tees. Scarifying units were set at a depth of 12mm below the surface, breaking through and removing organic matter from our main playing areas. All waste material was blown in to piles, as can be seen in the pictures, and removed to leave a clean surface ready for sand application.
Greens were dressed with 10 tonnes of sand and worked in to the scarifying lines to help eat into that organic matter layer.

Tees and aprons were also sand dressed to improve playability and turf health.

All scarifying and dressing was completed over a period of two weeks which was brilliant as it’s a very time-consuming task with a lot of mess made in the process.

Maintenance stage 2
The second stage of maintenance was coring the greens. These cores were around 1.5-inch long at 1.5-inch spacings.

All cores this year have been re-used on what will be our new putting green. This will create a small thatch layer which will aid with quick establishment of the new green. Although the new practice green will be seeded, as the cores grow through and establish it will create a more consistent surface to replicate the greens we find out on the course.

After green coring was complete, we applied another 20 tonnes of sand to fill the core holes as much as possible. This sand was worked in first using a drag mat. Afterwards, when the sand was dry, we went on to brush the sand in to the holes.

Stage two of our tees and aprons maintenance was to solid tine them with a 15mm solid tine. They were then dragmatted to work the sand into the holes.

Maintenance stage 3
The 3rd stage of maintenance to the greens was a deep verti-drain to around 9 inches with a 13mm solid tine followed by another dressing over the greens (15 tonnes). This creates airspace deep into the surfaces which will have many long-term benefits; better drainage, root structure and all-round better plant health just to name a few.

Tees have been deep verti-drained to around 7inch.

Maintenance stage 4
All greens were overseeded with a blend of straight bents grass to help continue to improve the quality of the grasses in our greens. Over time this will give our greens a better tolerance to turf diseases, better playability and ball roll which is what we aim to keep improving.

After overseeding was complete we moved on to applying our last granular feed of the year. The greens are responding very well to the 4-4-20 feed applied.

Maintenance stage 5
We have recently carried out Verti-draining of our fairways with a 20mm tine at a depth of 6-inch with a 6-inch spacing. This work will improve soil porosity, allowing air flow and moisture to work through the profile.

We have recently had a demo of the John deere 5075e and we felt it would be best to put it to the test while verti-draining our fairways.
We have also had a demo of an Iseki 6507 which we used while verti-draining tees.

Winter Rules
As of Monday 4th November, we have now moved to Winter Rules and a revised course layout for this winter. We politely remind all members that fairway mats are now mandatory, and we ask those playing social golf to also use them in the first cut of rough to aid with course protection. Members will also note extensive roped off areas this winter for the purposes of course protection with the aim of ensuring the best quality of course we can come the spring.

August started off with a decent spell of weather although changed very quickly back to typical Scottish weather. Large amounts of rainfall and very muggy misty days saw disease pressure go through the roof which forced us to apply a fungicide application on to our greens to minimise the damage. Thankfully this has reduced the spread of the fusarium and it is now recovering well.

As we approach the autumn/winter months we have started preparing our temporary greens to get them in the best possible condition should they be required. With our greens being free draining we don’t expect the temporary greens to be in play very often, although they will be in play whenever we have frost. We will feed, solid tine and dress all temporary greens to give the best possible temporary greens throughout the winter months.

Our main focus this winter will be course protection with plans to increase the roped off areas. Some tees will also be moved slightly to help ease the pressure on heavy traffic areas which struggle to recover every year through the playing season. Come next season we aim to see a dramatic difference in the quality of these areas. We also plan to carry out aeriation on some of the larger areas of the course to help playability (tees, aprons, fairways and walkways) which will allow areas to be more free draining and keep the course open as much as we possibly can.

Our team have had a long hard summer and have put in a tremendous amount of effort to present the course in great condition on a consistent basis. The team have been using their annual leave over the last few weeks and this will continue up until the end of the year. This means we will be running most days with 4/5 staff compared to our full staff of 6. We will also have 3 of our apprentice’s returning to Gosta training to start/continue their education which is day release every week from now until around March/April time.

Greens maintenance

At the start of August we carried out some essential maintenance to our greens:

• Verti-drained with a solid tine
• Rolled
• Sand dressed (5 tonnes)
• Worked in with drag mat
• Rolled greens to improve ball roll and minimise disruption
• Organic granular feed applied to help aid recovery

The greens recovered very well from this process and our next maintenance will be coming up at the end of September/start of October, although specific timing will be coordinated with the 28th green contractor, Greentech, as they require cores to build the new 18th putting green.

Thank you to all Members for always being very supportive of the course and the processes we go through to try and produce healthy putting surfaces for you to play on all year round.

18th Hole Redevelopment

Greentech started the redevelopment of our 18th hole on Wednesday 11th September.

Their first area of focus has been to strip the turf from the current fairway area and use this material as infill for the left-hand side to create a wider landing area. At time of writing 4 days effort has been completed, in good conditions with no rain, so we have got off to a great start. The majority of the turf has been removed and Greentech are now working on dropping the level of the fairway.

Holes 12a and 12b are now in play and will remain in-play until the new 18th hole is open for play at the start of next season.

The practice fairway area is now closed.

The chipping green will remain in use until work starts at the new 18th green and putting green area.

As much as this is an exciting time for everyone, please be mindful to stay away from working equipment and don’t enter the proximity of the working area as the Greentech staff need time and free space to work efficiently and safely. It’s now a working site and it shouldn’t be entered as it’s not safe to do so.
Blue stakes have now been put in place up the left of the 16th hole. Should your ball cross the line of stakes, please take free relief from the area.

July has been a very busy month for our team as always with a busy fixture list to prepare the course for; club competitions, majors, opens and this year the Lothians Amateur Championship. Thanks to the effort from our team, these events have all been a real success, and the feedback received on the course has exceeded all expectations.

Along with all the competitions we have been carrying out routine and essential maintenance to our greens. We’ve been delighted with the greens this summer, but we strive for continual improvement in standard, and this maintenance plays a key part of that. From time to time this will cause some disruption although it will be short lived and for the benefit of our greens in the long term.

Greens Maintenance
After having a very busy period and entering a period when disease pressure is typically high, we undertook important scheduled maintenance on Monday 5th August.

We are currently going through a period of high disease pressure with damp humid conditions and very little air movement. This brought on an outbreak of anthracnose, although it is very common at this time of year for anthracnose to make an appearance.

The greens were solid tined followed by a light dressing enabling airflow and forcing moisture to move off the top surface. Several other steps have also been taken to reduce stress on our surfaces:
• Reduced cutting frequency on greens
• Height of cut increased
• Bio stimulants applied and increased nitrogen levels to help relieve stress
• Managing moisture differently when applying water to minimise the leaf sitting damp over night
• Greens have been sarrel rolled to allow air in to the top surface
• Spiking and overseeded worst affected areas
• Scheduled maintenance (5th of August) to allow air flow into the surfaces
• Organic granular feed will be applied after maintenance to help recovery and increase nitrogen levels

Lothians Amateur Championship
Hosting this year’s Lothians Amateur Championship was a fantastic opportunity for the Club to show the wider Lothians what the club as a whole strive to produce. Apart from a few minor breakdowns all went very much to plan with our greens running at just under 11 on the stimpmeter, although more importantly they were running smooth, true and consistent which is exactly what we work hard to produce. The feedback we received was exceptional from players, spectators and also fellow greenkeepers who were playing in the event.

Feedback we received over the week
• “Truest greens I have putted on”
• “Best condition course I have played on all year”
• “I must say the course was in magnificent condition and doubt if there is anywhere better. They should get themselves on the Lothians circuit as without doubt one of the best”
• “Course was outstanding all week long. Genuinely not a single bad word about the place which is incredible”
• “I would just like to make a complaint about the condition of the greens….. how can they be that good?!”

This is just some of the feedback we received which was fantastic to hear and greatly appreciated from all our team. The team worked long days with very early mornings to set the course up to the standard we aim for and this feedback shows it was well worth it. Huge thanks to our whole team.

18th hole redevelopment preparation
With the 18th hole redevelopment due to start in September, we have commenced preparation for the ‘12a’ hole green in the middle of the 12th fairway. This area is now G.U.R please take relief from the area.

We will be working on reducing the height of cut in this area over the next few weeks and we will treat the area the same as the rest of the greens on the course to get it in the best condition we can before it comes into play.

The green has been recently sand dressed and it will also be verti-drained.

Staff working around golf
We have recently had a few questions from members about our team working on the course during play. We want to re-assure members that our intention is always to try and work with minimal disruption to golfers. However, from time to time our team will be relatively close to play and machines may well be running. The team will always be respectful to players, although at times noise from machinery and working in and around golfers is unavoidable. Most days the tee sheet is full from 7am into the afternoon and so work going on whilst players are on the course is unavoidable if we strive to maintain the course in the condition members desire. Our team will always be happy to chat if there are any concerns or if you wish to find out more about what we’re doing on any given day.