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Hi there, sorry there have been no new posts during the last month but the family and I have been up in Ross-shire looking at the course for ourselves. Wow, what an amazing difference! From rough grazing land has sprung a golf course. I must admit I was quite sceptical last autumn when Jon said that a bit of mowing would convert the scrappy grass with its pock marked surface into fairways, however he has certainly proved that he knows what he is talking about. With the fairways now cut and the greens growing in it is now possible to see Jon's vision and how he has used the landscape with the design.

For all it is just nine holes at present, the feel of the course changes as you go around from being more compact at the front to wide open spaces at the back of the land. The views are fantastic and the wildlife that is around is tremendous. During the fortnight we saw an osprey, red kites, deer, numerous butterflies and dragonflies amongst other things. Hopefully in the future people will appreciate these aspects every bit as much as the golf. The course is worth seeing in person and as mentioned before, Jon and Claudia have room for friends to stay. There is plenty to do and see in the area which is very accessible by road, rail or air. Contact Claudia on 0751 851 4650 (+44751 185 14650 from abroad)

The pictures show the transformation of the ninth green over the last few months. If you look back to earlier entries at the beginning of the year you will see how this area looked prior to the toilet block and some trees being felled.

First Green, First Cut

With the recent mixture of sunshine and showers, the grass on the greens is now growing away nicely. The picture shows the first green after its first cut. This was done with a strimmer, a little unorthodox but necessary due to the height of some of the grass and weeds. The 6th, 7th and 8th greens have also had the same treatment too. Elsewhere on the course, Claudia has continued to mow the fairways.

Claudia and Jon have also been busy settling in to the new bungalow. Claudia's cousin Robbie visited last week from Switzerland and enjoyed his visit very much. He will be pleased to know that some beds have been ordered for delivery soon so he wont have to sleep on the camp bed next time.

New Home

At the time of writing, Claudia & Jon are packing up their things once more and leaving Gardener's Cottage. The good news is that they moving into a bungalow nearby which is bigger and means that they will be able to have friends and family to stay. There are two en-suite guest bedrooms and the property has lovely views over the Beauly Firth as shown in the picture.

Contact Claudia & Jon via jon@brahangolfclub.ch

PS. The garden isn't looking at its best in this photo having been neglected by the previous occupiers. Jon faces the challenge of restoring the lawn to its former glory, Claudia has declared this to be his job as she only deals with serious mowing equipment these days!

Claudia's wheels are upgraded

This is Claudia showing off the new cylinder mower which is bigger, faster and gives a better cut. She is mowing around a tuft of reed grass. I quizzed Jon about these having spotted a number of them on previous pictures of the fairways. Apparently they are staying as an additional hazard though whether to catch out the golfer or Claudia on the mower is open to question! Jon intends to transplant some clumps to form reed bunkers as alternatives to sand traps. He tells me that the ball will roll up against the edge of the reed giving an interesting shot but didn't discuss the outcome if the ball lands bang in the middle...looks like we will have to find that out for ourselves.

Going Green

Jon reports excellent progress with the growing in of the greens. The seed has germinated well and the greens are looking green! The pictures are of the second green and the approach to the first.

If like me you were intrigued as to why Claudia was driving a bunker rake over the newly seeded greens a few weeks back (see previous post for picture) here is the explaination.

The bunker rake is a piece of kit that is used to do that in the vast deserts that are American bunkers. However over here where a hand rake will suffice, the rake attachement is removed and the wheels become important. These are knobbly and as well as pressing the seed down, create little impressions in the soil which trap rain and create shadows aiding germination.

Jon has continued to work extremely hard on his own including a 14 hour stint on the mower one day. They have been using a small ride-on rotary mower which was ideal for the first few cuts of rough grass but on Thursday take delivery of larger cylinder mower which will speed up the job...Claudia can't wait to get her hands on this new toy. Claudia has now returned home after several weeks in Horbury with Ivy. While she was away there was another incident filled night at Gardeners Cottage when Jon was woken up by a bird flying into the bedroom window only to be woken up a second time shortly afterwards by the curtain rail falling down!

That's all for now but watch this space for important news coming soon.

Final Green Preparation

Some action pictures of the final green preparation. They show Jon seeding the 9th and Claudia using the bunker rake to press in the seed...another new set of wheels. The third pic shows the grass starting to come through on the 5th. Jon has spent the last week clearing the trees that were felled from underneath the power lines and mowing as Claudia is still in Yorkshire. Today it has been too wet to work outside so Jon has been in the office and he has also managed to watch some of the football .

Finished!!

After a mammoth effort at the end of May, the greens are finally finished...hurrah! Claudia and Jon have put in some very long hours, often starting at six in the morning and not finishing until late in the evening. Seeding the greens took several days as a narrow spreader was used due to the contours of the land which meant that Jon had to do 5 passes on each green in order to lay down the correct amount of seed. He estimates a walking distance of around 9 kilometres per green and on one day alone seeded four...almost a marathon. Needless to say the lad is shattered but really pleased with the results. Meanwhile, Claudia has been mowing the fairways and absolutely loves this task. At the end of last month, they were able to take a few days off and come south to West Yorkshire for a bit of well deserved R&R. Jon has now returned to the Highlands but Claudia is staying on for a couple more weeks to spend some time with Jon's mum.

Apologies there aren't any new course pictures to add this this time but Jon hasn't had much spare time to send them to me yet.