Golf Course Maintenance Tips

For much of the country, November continued with the autumn theme of being mild and dry. However, parts of the north and west of the UK experienced significant rainfall; therefore conditions have continued to vary throughout.

The diversity in weather conditions, and in particular rainfall, continued throughout October with parts of western UK recording more rain in one day than many parts in the south and east for the whole of the month. This trend in a north/south and east/west divide has been a feature throughout 2011 and, as such, turf managers have had to adapt work programmes accordingly.

Overview :- After a stormy start to September, much of the month was a typical mix of sun, cloud and rain before ending in a heat wave and record temperatures for many in the south and east. From a revenue perspective, this meant that golf courses were particularly busy towards the end of the month when roundage is usually starting to decline.

August proved to be a mixed bag of weather conditions throughout the UK, with some parts suffering from heavy rainfall and flash flooding whilst much of England endured a significant shortfall until the last week.

July proved to be a month of two halves for much of the UK, with the first two weeks being a continuation of cool unsettled weather and with varying amounts of rainfall. Although the total rainfall for July was about average, very little fell during the last two weeks, ironically just as the Open Championship at Sandwich came to an end.

With June being the wettest month of the year to date for much of southern and eastern Britain, it gave most course managers a welcome break from dealing with issues of drought stress, limited growth and a slow recovery from spring renovation work.

With cooler temperatures and varying amounts of rain in May, albeit largely in the north and west of the UK, there was at least some respite from the continued dry conditions. For many Course Managers in the drier areas, the early part of this season continues to be a challenge, with little respite from daily watering and ensuring that irrigation coverage is effective.

Exceptionally dry conditions continued throughout April, with the majority of the UK receiving next to no rainfall of any significant amount. This, following a dry March has posed many challenges to turf managers on areas of the course where there is no irrigation cover.

For many clubs, the past month has been one of the driest March's on record. Much of southern and eastern UK regions have recorded less than half an inch of rain and even that fell mostly on just one day.

Overview:- with February proving to be a largely non-eventful month in terms of rainfall (a little above average) and temperature, both play and work throughout the month was continuous: a far cry from the end of 2010 when most of the UK was covered in ice and snow.

After the prolonged snow cover and severe frost of December, January was a much quieter month with near average temperatures and rainfall for most, albeit lacking in sunshine.

During the past month, virtually all normal routines and planned programmes were effectively 'kicked into touch' due to the extreme weather conditions which prevailed. December 2010 was the coldest for over 100 years, with sub-zero temperatures and snow cover lasting for over 3 weeks.