If you think it seems like we’ve already had a full year’s worth of rainfall this year, you’re half right. Almost…
In January and February (and the few days we’ve had in March), almost half of the entire expected annual rainfall fell on the country, with the eastern and southern quadrants getting more than their fair share.
But that doesn’t come as any sort of news to the nation’s golfers who have been waking up to ‘course closed’ notifications with frustrating regularity, as even several of the country’s links courses have been forced to temporarily close their doors as the deluges proved too much for even the rapid-draining, porous coastal terrain.
“It’s unprecedented in my career,” said Aindriu Jackson, a Regional Superintendent for Carr Golf’s impressive portfolio of clients, who has more than a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in course maintenance.
“Over 300 mm of rain falling in the first two months – that could be more than half of what we get in the entire year. When you see courses like Seapoint and Corballis closed for flooding, and other golf courses in the Dublin area that are typically dry and only ever close occasionally shut down for up to four weeks, that says it all.
“It’s not just how much rain fell either. It’s how it came, with long periods of heavy rain which saw the ground get completely saturated and anything that fell after that was just topping it up.”
It’s not just golfers who are affected, however, as it forces course maintenance teams to scramble to minimise the damage, but for fee-paying golf course members, that’s a secondary concern.
In a recent Carr Golf survey conducted in the UK, drainage and winter playability ranked among members’ top three concerns, suggesting that the trend toward milder, wetter winters is directly limiting playing opportunities and raising questions about membership value.
But managers face difficult trade-offs: prioritising immediate playing conditions at the risk of long-term damage, closing holes or the course entirely and frustrating members, or investing in resilience-building works that sacrifice short-term playability.
While these decisions are challenging and often unpopular, there are proven strategies to mitigate risk and build lasting resilience.
Protect the surface
“Soil is at its most vulnerable when it’s wet,” Jackson explained. “So, it can get broken down and damaged very quickly. If golfers go out to play when the conditions aren’t right, so you need to be cautious and then, when you do open, you need to manage traffic and make sure you’re directing people to areas that are suitable for walking and roping off areas that aren’t.
“That’s particularly important this year because, though March is typically the month where the ground starts to dry and growth starts to occur, the saturated soil will be much slower in heating up and soil temperature is the main driver of grass growth.”
Proactive traffic management is therefore essential. Stakes and ropes should be used to distribute wear and protect vulnerable areas, including tee entry and exit points, path ends, fairway transitions and green complexes.
Prudent traffic control not only protects turf health but also improves recovery timelines and long-term playability.
Maintain infiltration: Aeration, sanding and drainage
Winter aeration is critical to relieve compaction, improve infiltration and maintain connectivity with existing drainage systems, and sand top-dressing enhances surface infiltration and soil structure, particularly in the upper profile where playability is most affected.
Where budgets allow, regular applications, including fairways, deliver the greatest benefit. Where they do not, targeted top dressing alongside ongoing aeration can still improve performance.
While these should be treated as long-term commitments rather than one-off interventions if they are to deliver sustained results, Jackson suggests that the recent extremes, in many cases, will have highlighted particularly weak areas.
“So much rain will have really identified any areas that were marginal or potential drainage issues,” he said. “Courses now know where drainage programmes are needed, or where to concentrate on additional sanding to alter the soil structure, and maybe increase nutritional input to leave the grass in a stronger position for next winter and the winters following.”
Improve drying conditions
“To dry your clothes, you wouldn’t hang them in the shed,” Jackson quipped. “You’d hang them where the sunshine and breeze can get at them. It’s the same with soil. Often, people think they have drainage issues, where the reality is that they often have shading issues.
“If you have large banks of coniferous trees, then the ground on one side of them probably could be in the shade all winter long. In the summertime, those tree roots are pulling nutrients and moisture from the ground, and in winter, they have all the moisture they need anyway so don’t pull any water from the ground.”
Jackson believes that many golf courses would benefit from a ‘tree-management programme’ where trees that are in problem areas are removed, where evergreen trees are replaced with native, deciduous trees, and pruning, canopy removal and brush clearance are undertaken to improve air movement and sunlight exposure.
Shade is particularly detrimental to the greens because, as Jackson explains, grass is naturally predisposed to seek the sun.
“If it’s in the shade all day, the grass plant will actually change how it behaves and how it grows,” he said. “In shaded areas, it will put all its energy into growing a longer and thinner leaf which makes it weaker and more susceptible to disease. The sward will have lower density, smoothness will be decreased and they will be slower and less true than the greens that aren’t shaded.”
Monitor, measure, manage
If soil moisture monitoring is not already part of your routine, it should be. Understanding soil health and moisture levels using specialist equipment is fundamental to addressing drainage-related issues effectively.
Milder, wetter conditions also increase the chance of turf disease and earthworm casting. Such outbreaks compound pressures on maintenance schedules, playing conditions and operational costs, making proactive monitoring even more critical.
“Disease is always a huge problem for greens,” Jackson explained. “And the chemistry that we’re able to use to combat that is becoming more and more restricted. Even the chemicals that we can use are less widely available and much weaker than what we had in the past.
“This makes prevention all the more important so if you can identify the root causes – again, shade and drainage – and reduce the factors that disease thrives on, you’re making it much easier and much more cost-effective.”
Modern meters provide real-time data directly to your phone or computer, allowing you to track trends and identify shifting patterns. In the short term, this data can justify decisions to close particular holes or the course itself, providing evidence-based reasoning that members and committees can understand and respect.
Moving forward
The reality of wetter winters is here, and it’s reshaping how golf courses must operate. The term ‘climate change’ has largely replaced ‘Global Warming’, because, for Ireland, it’s trending towards cooler and wetter overall, but characterised by greater volatility.
“We’re going to have really dry periods, really wet periods, and more big storm events,” Jackson argued. “Much more erratic and much more severe.
“We’ve seen that with the record-breaking figures of rainfall, etc. in recent months and how it’s impacted golf, but typically, the annual rainfall always works out fairly similar so if we’ve already got up to half of the year’s rainfall, we can almost be sure we’re going to get an incredibly dry summer.”
While that will be music to most golfers’ ears, for golf course superintendents climbing out of the frying pan, they’re effectively stepping into the fire as the focus shifts from keeping courses as dry as possible to ensuring that they don’t die of thirst.
“That will provide a stern test to golf course irrigation systems,” Jackson said. “So, anywhere that has an irrigation system that’s not up to par is going to struggle.”
To maintain good relations with its members, a golf club must communicate clearly why the measures being taken are necessary.
Focus on how you’re addressing challenges with members’ playing experience at the forefront. During difficult periods, demonstrate that you have their best interests at heart, even when short-term sacrifices are necessary. This approach builds trust and brings members along with you (rather than turning them against you).
The clubs that act now will be better positioned to thrive in the seasons ahead.
Carr Golf Maintenance helps member-owned clubs and private venues achieve continuous, measurable improvements to course performance, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.
Based on 13 key performance indicators and in-depth reporting, their custom data-driven programmes deliver long-term results through ongoing testing, measuring and optimisation.
Leave a comment