Greens Update - May 2025

As the sun continues to shine, the golf course and the greenstaff face difficult challenges with the driest spring on record. In this blog I will try and explain some of the challenges greenkeepers face, up and down the country, and how we are prioritising the work. We have had plenty of feedback, from members and visitors, some good some bad, and so this will hopefully explain a few things, which will include greens, tees, bunkers, and the robots. Firstly, here is an article from BIGGA, which includes words from Paul Woodham from the R&A, about the challenges greenkeepers face.

The lack of rainfall is well needed for the golf course as a whole, allowing all the winter wetness, especially in the fairways and roughs, to dry down and firm up the surfaces. However, for the main playing surfaces, such as greens and tees, the lack of moisture can seriously affect their playing characteristics. The tees are very dry, and the greens will dry down very quickly without sufficient irrigation control. The primary challenge for the greenstaff is maintaining the health and aesthetics of the turf. Without sufficient water, grass roots are unable to access the necessary moisture, leading to dry, brittle, and brown patches. The stress on the turf not only affects its appearance but also its resilience, making it more susceptible to disease and pests.

We here there are several courses struggling with water issues on greens, and I have seen video evidence of some very challenged greens turf around. Fortunately, our system, although old, is quite reliable overall, although we do have some current issues, such as weeping sprinklers on 3 and 4 greens. Some of the repairs needed to parts of the system, may need it to be drained right off, and so I think it is best to wait until we have some rain before tackling those issues, although they are scheduled to be carried as soon as possible.

The greens have started to really pick up in recent days and their growth can lead to slightly slower pace than what we would ideally like. Work will continue, on mainly non-competition or team match days, with aeration, verticutting and topdressing processes to try and improve their playability, without the need for excess rolling.

The POGO moisture meter

We use the Pogo moisture meter daily to check moisture levels on the greens, and sometimes we must hand water specific areas for consistency levels. We have had the Pogo meter a while now and gathering the evidence, shows us the common areas where the greens dry out. They are obviously mainly on slopes, on the left of 10th for example, but also some green edges. Perhaps there were construction challenges when applying the correct specification levels in certain areas, or due to the slopes, the sand particles have migrated over the years through the profile.

Below is an example of a couple of readings with the Pogo, which gives us a visual insight into the moisture levels. We then can target those areas needing moisture with the hand hoses, which contain a wetting agent to help aid recovery.

 10TH GREEN

IDEALLY LOOKING FOR ABOVE 15% TO 20%, WITH A MAXIMUM OF 25%

These maps show the greenstaff the exact areas to target, and as we move forward, we are trying to use this information to achieve better conditions. The ideal situation is all the greens having all the readings green. A tough task made even harder with constant high temperatures and golf balls flying around!

We do have irrigation to our tees too, albeit through a lack of investment in upgrades over the years, some of the sprinklers are in poor condition and need changing out. The need has been much greater on the greens and so the tees haven’t been watered as much, although this has been increased this week and they are showing signs of both recovery, and where new sprinklers are needed.

One of the main feedback items received recently has been the condition of the bunkers. The sand is powder dry and it is challenging to play out of. It is also a challenge to maintain them in these conditions. I have spoken with other greenkeepers in the northwest and sand suppliers, and the subject is the same everywhere. There is not a make of bunker sand on the market that performs well in these dry conditions. But there are ways we can work together to try and help everyone. Firstly, please rake the bunker after you have been in it, this is normal golf etiquette and would help with their playability. Secondly, please do not exit the bunker up the face, as all that does is create large holes for balls to gather in.

Finally, if you could push the sand towards the front of the bunker, rather than pull to the back, this will improve conditions further. As soon as we have adequate moisture in the bunkers, we will be spending some time shaping 

Should we water the bunkers? Or can we turn the sprinklers to throw the water on the greens and in the bunkers? Everyone I have spoken to within the industry is in full agreement in that watering the bunkers would be a waste of much needed water, time and effort by the greenstaff. The water would soak right through in quick time and conditions would be back to very dry in no time. Golf courses are exempt at the minute from any potential hose pipe bans, although the Environmental Agency are doing their best to change that. We have to be responsible with our water usage and use any we apply to target the greens and tees.

The sprinklers we have around our greens are on an arc, meaning they are fixed to the left, and then adjusted to the right. If we wanted to use them in our bunkers we would end up digging some out in order to turn them round, a timely job which we certainly don’t have the resources to carry out.

Looking at our weather apps, it does look like this continued lack of rainfall is set to end in about a week’s time. Having had no rain on the course (or in your gardens) for 23 days, and only a total of 19mm since the end of March, I’m sure some members will be glad of the change. Let’s hope that when it does come, it does not continue for three months!!

If anyone is interested to read more about how the weather affects the turf, and what is coming up weatherwise, there is a wonderful weekly blog written by Mark Hunt of Prodata Weather Systems which is included here. It’s sent by email every week and it’s a good source of information.

The robotic mowers are continuing to provide excellent service and present the fairways and some aspects of rough very well indeed. We have recently had Husqvarna back to the course, to carry out a logistics mapping of the entire course. This allows us to see where we need extra reference stations (like the one on the clubhouse), and how many robots we would need to carry out all fairway and rough cutting for the entire course.

The good news is that we only require two further reference stations to complete full coverage on the course, one by the men’s 13th tee, and one on the bottom land. We would need two further large robots (Ceoras) to carry out the main area cutting, with the potential to add in the future for potential cutting of green banks, tee to fairway carries and other areas. These two further reference stations will be set up using solar power mounted on posts, so there will be no need to dig up any area for electricity.

We will continue to focus our attention on all the main playing areas during this very busy golf calendar, with aeration on fairways, roughs and approaches being in focus, as well as the continuing work on greens.

 Steve

Head Greenkeeper