Tee To Green August

Keeping the Downs Going Through the Heat

August has certainly tested us on the Downs and with the summer we have experienced, I think the course has come through it remarkably well.

This month we held our Club Championships, with the greens running at 10.5 on the Stimpmeter, which was exactly where we wanted them. Getting the greens to that speed in the conditions we have experienced has been a real challenge, and while it certainly put the greens under some additional stress, our irrigation system has played a huge part in keeping them alive and performing.

Following the Championships, we have now raised the height of cut to help the greens recover from the additional stress. Hopefully, you will agree that the course looked, and more importantly played, as well as could reasonably be expected considering the summer we have had. We are now approaching 10 weeks without any significant rainfall, so the team has worked extremely hard to keep the course in good condition throughout what has been a very challenging period.

A Major Step Forward

As many of you will know, the course will be closed on Monday 24 August. This is to allow the mains electricity to be connected to our pumphouse.

This is a major milestone for the Downs Course and something we have been working towards for some time. Once connected, it will allow us to remove the generator from our irrigation operation, giving us a much more efficient and reliable system going forward.

During the closure, we will also be carrying out some much-needed work on the greens. We will be verti-draining the greens and applying approximately 15 tonnes of sand.

After the demands we have placed on the greens over the last couple of weeks, this work is desperately needed. The aim is to get some much-needed air and sand into the profile, helping the greens recover and setting them up for the weeks and months ahead.

Once this work is complete, our attention will turn towards getting the course ready for our main maintenance programme, which begins on Monday 7 September.

Looking Ahead to Maintenance

One of the key operations this year will be DryJect. This process uses high-pressure water and sand to fracture the soil profile, creating channels through the rootzone and allowing the roots to explore deeper.

Following the DryJect operation, we will apply approximately 20 tonnes of sand to help restore the playing surface and get the greens back to where we want them.

It is important to remember that some of these operations can look quite disruptive initially, but they are essential investments in the long-term health and performance of the greens. Our aim is always to balance producing the best possible playing surfaces today with making sure the course is stronger and more resilient for the future.

A huge thank you once again to everyone for your continued support and patience, particularly during what has been an exceptionally challenging summer. The team has worked incredibly hard to keep the Downs in the condition it is in, and that effort doesn't go unnoticed.

Now, if anyone could just have a quiet word with the weather and ask for some rain, we'd really appreciate it!

Dan Cornish, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs course

The Park and Copse courses

The summer of 2026 has been a hot one. There has been thirty plus days of temperatures over 30c, five heatwaves, record temperatures set in May, June, July and sixty plus days since any rainfall. The last rain of any use was 11th June! Hopefully that looks set to change in the next couple of weeks, as the weather now in the forecasts is turning unsettled, finally!  

It's been brutal on the course, with fairways/semi rough burnt out, tees/aprons struggling in some areas and constant hand watering on dry spots on greens to keep them in good condition. As mentioned before, the irrigation runs every night from 9pm until 7am the next morning but with temps not really dropping below 30c, it struggles to keep up. When temps are between 25-30c, we are seeing daily averages of 5mm evaporation loss of moisture from the turf. Maximum we can replace in one night of watering is 4mm, so hand watering is essential in these conditions. 

These were tough conditions to get the course ready for the Club Championship week. Two weeks before, we verti-cut the greens, light sand dressing followed by a foliar feed. With constant watering, the greens were healthy but were also growing faster than we would like. This would have slowed the greens down, so we applied a PGR (plant growth regulator) to stop the growth. This helped get the speeds up between 9.5-10.5 all week for the Championships. They were running 100% true and presented really nicely. The team done a magnificent job leading up to it with the hand watering where we got all the greens pretty much consistent with one another. The team has done an amazing job all year in some really harsh conditions, so well done to them. Can't tell you how many times I've heard 'it's too hot'! The rest of the course was presented to the best we could, given the conditions we've had to endure. 

Just after the Championship week, we were expecting the 5th heatwave of the year. Seeing as both courses put the greens under a lot of stress that week, with increased cutting and ironing as well as the weather, we choose to raise the heights on the greens to relieve a bit of stress and protect during the next heatwave. This will result in the greens slowing up a bit from what they were running at.  

The final phase of The Park Masterplan works has now been finalised. Work begins on the 21st September and will take around 5 weeks to complete. The bunkers on holes 5/6/14/15/16/17/18 are to be done. The initial plans look very exciting indeed, and we can't wait to see it begin. 

The Copse has been busy with Junior Camps and a lot of families using it during the summer holidays. Same as main course, non-stop hand watering on the greens. A couple of greens have some bare areas on them from this heat. We will re-seed them when we do our maintenance at the end of September. Like most courses, the whole area has struggled in this heat. It's a sun trap in some areas and completely shaded in others. Hopefully with unsettled weather on the way (fingers crossed) this will soon recover. 

See you on the course.

Scott Peterson, Head Greenkeeper of The Park and Copse courses