The recent heavy rain and last Summer's fairway burn-ups

[JohnnyDee]

In common with a lot of other courses we took one helluva lot of fairway damage last Summer thanks to the heatwave. Thankfully greens remained excellent though as we have greenside sprinklers - but no fairway watering so we all but lost them.

During the Autumn and earlier this year we had two lots of overseeding plus scarifying and verti-draining. This worked to an extent but fairways were still patchy and as recently as only five or six weeks ago I honestly didn't think we'd get them into really good nick at all this season.

HOWEVER:

The many downpours in recent weeks have changed everything and in tandem with all the work seem to have waved a magic wand. Fairways have nearly (95% +) returned to their former glory with bare patches almost completely gone and are like walking on soft luscious Wilton once again. Hats-off to our new Head Greenkeeper and his team who have done a stunning job getting us back into fabulous condition.

So I was wondering - if your place suffered in a similar way are you back to your best or near best again?

 

[Crow]

Ditto for us, an amazing recovery.

 

[Orikoru]

Fairways are still stuffed at my course. They've planted a load of new grass sides which have just started to sprout in little rows. The greens are vastly improved though to be fair, they've come a long way from the state they were.

 

[clubchamp98]

Ours is fantastic at the moment.
Grass is very resilient.

 

[Imurg]

Ours never really got that bad.
Being on clay, the ground holds onto its water a bit better, hence getting a bit sticky in winter.
We did have bare patches but they'd pretty much recovered before the latest rains.
Course has been looking good for a few weeks now.

 

[Wolf]

I wasn't at ours last year so can't comment what they were like, but they were lush green when I joined in December and only getting greener Id hazard a guess that's down to the fact we're on Fenland so water levels always seem to be well maintained and didn't even need to water the fairways until end of May then we got the rain so even bigger saving on our water bill 😂

 

[Siolag]

Our course is in magnificent condition at the moment. We got huge amounts of rain on Monday and a played last night, the only real signs of it were in a few bunkers and some of the clay paths. The course was great.

 

[jim8flog]

Loads and loads of fairly small bare patches on some fairways that if you get are like being in the bottom of a divot hole.

Trouble is here we have had relatively little rain and well below average temperatures.

We did have some reseeding but you would barely notice if you did not know it had been done.

 

[USER1999]

We reseeded earlier this year. Most fairways have bounced back, but there is still some damage. That said, it is way better than I thought it would be this year. But what we still need is a damp ish summer. No draught please.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We lost a few but the green keepers scarified and re-seeded and the recent bout of showers and heat are doing wonders. They still aren't back and they'll need another year to get back providing we don't suffer a prolonged bout of scorching heat

 

[Radbourne2010]

In common with a lot of other courses we took one helluva lot of fairway damage last Summer thanks to the heatwave. Thankfully greens remained excellent though as we have greenside sprinklers - but no fairway watering so we all but lost them.

During the Autumn and earlier this year we had two lots of overseeding plus scarifying and verti-draining. This worked to an extent but fairways were still patchy and as recently as only five or six weeks ago I honestly didn't think we'd get them into really good nick at all this season.

HOWEVER:

The many downpours in recent weeks have changed everything and in tandem with all the work seem to have waved a magic wand. Fairways have nearly (95% +) returned to their former glory with bare patches almost completely gone and are like walking on soft luscious Wilton once again. Hats-off to our new Head Greenkeeper and his team who have done a stunning job getting us back into fabulous condition.

So I was wondering - if your place suffered in a similar way are you back to your best or near best again?

Played for my club at Ipswich (Purdis Heath) GC last week. As ever, the course layout is superb & greens were fantastic. However, the fairways burnt away last year & the club weren't allowed to use a bore hole & therefore couldn't replenish the fairways, despite over seeding & cross-cutting. Result, bare patches everywhere & tuffs of green turfs in other places. Such a shame for a Top 100 golf course.
No respite for them either as East Anglia is in drought mode still despite the recent rains.

 

[Oddsocks]

We’re pretty spoilt if I’m honest. The odd bare lie but 95% of the fairway area is lush grass and our greens and not fat short of the best I’ve ever seen them and we are known for good greens.

The course is in fantastic condition

 

[backwoodsman]

I know not what problems you refer to? We had damn good fairways last year and even better this year!

I guess the fairway sprinklers might have something to do with it?

 

[Tashyboy]

Be nice to hear a greenkeepers view on this, but ours never really looked a mess. Bone dry last year yes. But the course is on old fruit farm ground and seemed to cope quite well. I remember last year one of our holes had cracks in the ground at the side of the fairway. You could lose a ball 18" down them. A couple of weeks ago the greens looked Brown but last Thursday they looked lush.
Friday is our Pit lads golf comp. playing for the TWATS shield. Thoresby winners Andys & Trevs shield. Course should look glorious.

 

[USER1999]

Our greens have always been fantastic, it's just the fairways that suffered, and the bunker surrounds.

 

[Pathetic Shark]

We have 2/3 fairways that just died totally last year - because the soil depth was not enough dating back to the original design of the course in 1993, they have not come back at all and are just awful. Yet you go across a small bridge to another part of the same fairway and it is perfect.

The fix is a series of deep cores to build up the soil depth. Otherwise any kind of re-seeding will just wash away. This was always going to happen at some point and the 2018 drought just exploded the agronomic timebomb.

Naturally though we have a handful of members who because they can keep a small patch of their own lawn green, think the greenkeepers and course owners are totally incompetent.

 

[Capella]

We have fairway sprinklers, so our fairways weren't burned that badly. But everything around the edges was burned off, leaving us without any rough to speak off. Another problem was that, because our fairways were watered, they were the only soft patches of ground for miles around, so all the crows in the area came to our course and basically dug the fairways up looking for food.

This spring, with the slightly cooler temperatures and the rain led to an amazing recovery, though. The rough is thicker than I ever remember it, even though our greenkeepers keep it relatively short, it is almost impossible to hit out of. Fairways and greens are in perfect condition (but thanks to the sprinklers and good drainage, they ususally always are, except for about two months in winter).

 

[Jacko_G]

Grass is ultimately a weed. Leave it alone and nothing surer - it will reestablish itself.

Mach Dunes was burnt orange/brown with 18 beautiful green oasis at the end of the burnt bone dry fairways.

A year later yes there is some evidence of scaring but overall they're as lush as links fairways get and look to have made a tremendous job of self recovery.

 

[patricks148]

13th Suffered, as its very undulating so all the high points dried out and died off. all the rest are fine apart from where the new works have taken place and not last summers weather

 

[hines57]

due to our bore hole, fairway and greenside sprinker system and the excellent work of our green staff - we came through unscathed last summer. This year the course is in fantastic shape