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Tee To Green December

19th December 2025

Find out the latest from our Greenkeepers in this month's Tee to Green.

 
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The Downs course

As we move towards the end of the year, December has certainly reminded us that winter has arrived in earnest. We’ve experienced some significant rainfall over recent weeks, but pleasingly the course is holding up well and continuing to perform as we would expect for the time of year.

You may have noticed that buggies have been restricted more frequently than usual. We appreciate this can be frustrating and would like to thank you for your understanding. These decisions are never taken lightly and are purely to protect the course during wetter conditions. By reducing traffic at key times, we help prevent long-term damage and the benefits of this approach will be very evident when spring arrives.

Our irrigation project continues to progress at a good pace, which is encouraging to see despite the challenging weather. We are pleased to confirm that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 17th, 18th holes, along with the practice ground, have now been completed. This is a major step forward for the course and will play a key role in improving consistency and presentation moving forward. Thank you once again for your patience while these works continue.

As is often the case at this time of year, disease pressure has been particularly high over the last few weeks. You may notice some scarring on the greens as a result. The majority of this will naturally grow out as conditions improve, while any larger areas will be removed and repaired by the team to ensure surfaces recover as quickly as possible.

Finally, on behalf of the entire greenkeeping team, thank you for your continued support and understanding throughout what has been a busy and challenging year. We'd like to wish all our members a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we look forward to welcoming you back to the Downs Course in 2026.

Dan Cornish, Deputy Head Greenkeeper

The Park course & The Copse

Another unsettled month of weather again. As of writing this, Wednesday we had a hard frost on the course and this was followed by 1.5 inches of rain the next day. The weather patterns have been all over the place this year. At one point we had buggy’s on for a full week, and if you know The Park in December, that is not normal.

On a positive note, we did take advantage of the dry spell and managed to get all semi rough cut and also the fairways. We have now started our yearly vert-drain program on the fairways. On the fairways we are using 16 inch, inch thick tines to a depth of 6-7 inches and on our wetter fairways, we are pushing the depths to 8-9 inches like on the 9th for example. The results we have seen over the last 2 years have been impressive. Not only are we closed a lot less, but the fairways are also now one of the driest areas. The process not only relives compaction, but it also creates deep tine holes which the roots love and will follow down deeper. This has resulted in greater grass coverage, better drought tolerance as the roots are deeper, and as seen this year, a quicker recovery after a prolonged dry spell. Compared to other years, we spent no time and money in recovering them, the past few years we have had to overseed and feed to get coverage back. It's a slow process and we thank you for your patience.

The greens have been performing and looking good. We continue with our winter feeds and fungicide programs. We’ve had some disease pressure, but that is normal for this time of year. The greens will also have vert-drain in the next couple of weeks.

The team has also been busy starting woodland work. The area between 14/15th has been flailed. After some tree work on the 2nd, the team have cleared that area and flailed and brush cut around the trees. This has enhanced presentation and playability. We will continue with other areas throughout winter. The forestry team has also begun planting trees down the left-hand side of 3rd and also around 4th tee. More will follow in the next month.

Myself, Gary Beves, Simon Berry and Danny Carter all attended the annual Golf Course Awards at the Emirates Stadium in London as The Copse was up for Short Course of the Year. Unfortunately, we didn’t win but would like to congratulate Repton Short Course at Rudding Park. It was a great experience overall to be nominated and to network with some of the most renowned Golf Clubs in the country.

As this is the last blog of the year, The Park team would like to wish all our members and guests a Happy Christmas and Happy New Year.

Scott Peterson, Head Greenkeeper, The Park and Copse courses

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