Summer heat / course conditions

[Captain_Black.]

We are told to expect hotter & dryer summers & wetter winters going forward.
Our courses in the UK in general are not set up to be able to cope with this particularly well.

We lack watering on the fairways & tees in the summer & insufficient drainage in the winter.
My club doesn't have sprinklers on the tees, so they are turning brown & getting slippery already & it's only June & a few of the fairways are also turning brown & starting to look a bit threadbare.

Obviously to rectify this involves a huge amount of work & cost, plus ongoing costs in the future for water usage, if there isn't a ban due to insufficient supply?

So what to do?
If this pattern of weather continues year after year, clubs will have to look at some form of action, which will undoubtedly mean extra costs passed on to us.

 

[Mel Smooth]

We've had to start cutting our greens longer last week to protect them, and as we have a limited water supply all the focus is on keeping the putting surfaces in a good state. The fairways still haven't really recovered from last summer so I'm already seeing some pretty tight bare lies on iron shots - but it's not enough to want me to see the club raising costs - for me it's just part of playing golf in an exceptionally hot and dry spell.

 

[RichA]

Happy to accept the drawbacks of a slightly threadbare fairway when my drive carries 220 and rolls out over 300 yards.
Not so happy when a bad one leaves me with 300 to the pin and sitting on a bald patch.

 

[Golfnut1957]

I can live with the incredibly long drives, the weird bounces into the semi, and having to land your approach short in a fairly precise spot in order to get it to hold the green. I can live with wearing shorts every day and sitting on the balcony overlooking 18 for the post match beer.

I struggle with the persistent winter and spring rain which turns the course into a lake and constantly closes it, and while we have plenty of water for watering during the summer, we can do nothing about having too much in the winter.

 

[Mel Smooth]

I can live with the incredibly long drives, the weird bounces into the semi, and having to land your approach short in a fairly precise spot in order to get it to hold the green. I can live with wearing shorts every day and sitting on the balcony overlooking 18 for the post match beer.

I struggle with the persistent winter and spring rain which turns the course into a lake and constantly closes it, and while we have plenty of water for watering during the summer, we can do nothing about having too much in the winter.

Nearly all our greens are protected by water, sand, or the approach angle. I had a 7 iron into our 2nd last week - I normally have to lay up but had got a good roll out of my drive. Landed it on the front 3rd of the green, and ran straight through (thankfully missing the two rear bunkers), and ended up down on the 3rd tee.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

We are a parkland Course so it’s not set up for fast running fairways and run in approaches to the greens on a number of holes

Because it’s sand based the heat burns the grass then when heavy rain arrives it goes to mud

So 4 years ago we decided to install full course sprinklers and the benefits are amazing, we have a green course when all around are brown and burnt , we also adding in new drainage in areas , it’s a big financial commitment but with the constant summer heatwaves it’s going to keep the course alive

 

[jim8flog]

I have the biggest problem in winter

Soaking wet fairways means course closures or buggy bans. So it is no golf whatsoever for me when it happens, I only played once in January.

We have full course sprinklers but they are only used sparingly - tees and greens (enough to keep the grass alive) with occasional use on approaches. We get our water by abstraction from a well and our licence means their is a limit to the amount we can use. I know a few years we got very close to using our limit so they have been more careful in recent years.

 

[Captain_Black.]

We are a parkland Course so it’s not set up for fast running fairways and run in approaches to the greens on a number of holes

Because it’s sand based the heat burns the grass then when heavy rain arrives it goes to mud

So 4 years ago we decided to install full course sprinklers and the benefits are amazing, we have a green course when all around are brown and burnt , we also adding in new drainage in areas , it’s a big financial commitment but with the constant summer heatwaves it’s going to keep the course alive

This is what I was getting at in my original post, golfing abroad has gotten very expensive, but when you consider how much water they must use to keep the grass alive in day after day temperatures of 30° plus, the costs are not surprising.

Unless we (at some courses) want a perpetual cycle of baked hard like concrete grass free fairways in the summer, which turn to a bog in the winter we will have to think much harder how we manage our courses year round & the costs involved in that.

 

[CountLippe]

We are a parkland Course so it’s not set up for fast running fairways and run in approaches to the greens on a number of holes

Because it’s sand based the heat burns the grass then when heavy rain arrives it goes to mud

So 4 years ago we decided to install full course sprinklers and the benefits are amazing, we have a green course when all around are brown and burnt , we also adding in new drainage in areas , it’s a big financial commitment but with the constant summer heatwaves it’s going to keep the course alive

Any idea how much the full course irigation cost?

 

[Orikoru]

The greenkeepers at my club did an amazing job last year. I'm far from an expert, but seemingly all they did was leave the fairways a little longer and get their timings spot on with regards to when they cut them. But we were coming back from other courses where half the fairway was bare mud, and at our home club it was still perfect. Then of course as others have said, the places with bare mud became a right state when the rain arrived, and ours survived very well again. I felt very lucky that it was in such good nick last year.

It's crazy to think now that only 3 weeks ago we were bemoaning the awful weather and asking when summer was going to arrive. And here it is. We just don't seem to have spring anymore. It goes from miserable to scorching in a heartbeat.

 

[Springveldt]

Any idea how much the full course irigation cost?

I've heard a course close to ours spent about £350K on it and that was a couple of years ago before all this inflation.

 

[Billysboots]

I’ve said this elsewhere but our course is playing unbelievably tough because of the hard, fast running conditions and brutal second cut.

In the last two competitions, out of a combined field of over two hundred, only two players have bettered their handicap. That is absolutely unheard of wherever I have been a member in forty years.

We benefit in winter from being sand/gravel based, but the downside is that, in conditions like we had last summer and appear set for this year, keeping the ball in play is nigh on impossible. I’ve seen partners taking 6-iron on tees where they would normally hit driver.

Our greens are still pretty receptive which is a positive, but most of us are picking and choosing our comps very carefully. I have no wish to play a medal right now.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Any idea how much the full course irigation cost?

Think it in total it will be about £700k

 

[CliveW]

This is what I was getting at in my original post, golfing abroad has gotten very expensive, but when you consider how much water they must use to keep the grass alive in day after day temperatures of 30° plus, the costs are not surprising.

This is why courses abroad have so many water hazards. These lakes and ponds are actually reservoirs which are used to irrigate the courses. Take water from them at night and it then soaks back into the lakes to be used again.

 

[upsidedown]

Any idea how much the full course irigation cost?

We're about to go out to tender but expecting in the region of £600K for greens , surrounds, approaches and new main and 2 new pumps

 

[Billysboots]

Think it in total it will be about £700k

There’s not many could justify that sort of outlay. The only place I played last year which benefited from all round irrigation was The Oxfordshire. A joy to see green grass last August on a golf course!

 

[Barking_Mad]

203 yard 6 iron, only stopped by a thick collar of rough.

About 5 weeks ago course was so wet it should have been shut, apparently standing water on several greens, mud city everywhere. Not had a drop of rain since and staff hand watering greens. Madness.

 

[rulefan]

I have no wish to play a medal right now.

Protecting your handicap?

 

[rulefan]

Our greenkeeper has just reported 41 days without a drop of rain. Fortunately we have our own borehole.

 

[louise_a]

our course is not in a good way at the moment, bare straw fairways, and i noticed yesterday the green looked like they had not been cut for a few days, I do not enjoy these conditions, lots do though, the winner of captains prize on sunday with a net 64 said she loved the extra run she gets.
It is the club championships in 8/9 days, that is going ot be interesting.