Course Update February 2015

Despite the adverse weather and difficult ground conditions we have had an extremely productive period.

Out on the courses we have been busy with a number of scrub and woodland projects. We have also felled and burnt a number of Elm trees that had been identified by Edinburgh Council as infected with Dutch Elm Disease. The diseased Elms have been removed to prevent the spread of the disease and to minimise risks to public safety.

The right-hand green-side bunker at the 12th green has now been re-positioned and new drainage installed. When ground conditions improve the final shaping and grading works will be completed and the bunker and surrounding area made ready for turfing.

We have also been repairing and rebuilding some of the collapsed boundary walls on the course and are at present tidying and resurfacing some of the paths and walkways.

At the halfway house we have finished landscaping the area between the facility and the 16th tee and are at present erecting more fencing to screen the patio area.

To ensure that the course, balcony and halfway house benches and tables are in the best possible condition for the new season they have all been power washed, sanded down, re-furbished and received several wood treatments.

In the workshop, the maintenance and servicing of our extensive range of machinery and equipment continues. Regular in-house servicing not only improves reliability and performance but also improves longevity and keeps residual values of machines high for trading in.

Tee furniture, flag pins, hole cups and all other course accessories are being prepped and made ready for repainting, to ensure they are in pristine condition for the start of the new playing season.  The welfare facilities walls and woodwork have also been washed down and are now at present being painted.

Some pictures that have been taken recently:

12th Green-side bunker re-positioned

Course Closed

Recently refurbished bench at the 13th tee, looking like new

Upgraded pathway to the 17th tee

Screening the halfway house patio area from the 10th teeing grounds

Installing recycled sleepers to form a curb edge on roadway to quarry practice ground

Woodland & Gorse Management

This week we have been busy working on a number of areas of woodland on the course and cutting back and trimming gorse on hole 6.
In the woodland areas we have been removing some of the invasive self seeding Sycamore trees and scrub Elderberry trees.

Chipping scrub trees on access road to quarry practice ground

Access road after scrub removal

On hole 6 we have been coppicing some of the woody and degenerate gorse on the right-hand of the temporary green and lightly trimming the gorse on the right-hand side of the main green.

Gorse on right-hand side of 6th temp green

Some of the gorse in this area is over three metres in height and in extremely poor condition

Extension to Irrigation System

Now that the Irrigation system has been drained down for the winter we have been busy extending the mains pipe-work and electric control cable down to the quarry practice ground.

The 90mm diameter mains pipe in front of the 9th tee has been cut and a tee coupling installed. To ensure the long-term reliability of this connection the coupling has been butt fusion welded.
Fusion welding or hot plate welding is just a process used to join polyethylene pipe together and avoids the use of compression joints, which tend to fail and be unreliable when used on  pressurised pipe-work.
At this stage 50 meters of 63mm diameter MDPE pipe and 3 core electric control cable have been installed.

When the installation and connections have been completed it will mean that the new practice chipping green and its surrounds can either be irrigated using our automatic irrigation system controller or by manual control.

The new 63mm pipe installed

Pipe-work connected

Fusion welding completed

Gorse Management 2014/15

We have recently coppiced another section of gorse between the 5th & 6th fairways. As in previous years, to encourage re-growth of healthy and robust plants the gorse has been coppiced to a height of 150 mm.

Early in the new year will tackle another area of degenerate gorse on the right-hand side of the 6th temporary green.

Gorse Management Plan - Phase II

Cutting back gorse

Chipping gorse

After coppicing and removal of debris

Looking down the 6th fairway