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Tee To Green May

19th May 2026

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

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The Downs course

May has certainly kept us on our toes up here on the Downs course. While we’ve enjoyed some lovely warm days, the cold nights and persistent winds have made growing conditions far from straightforward. As always with greenkeeping, Mother Nature tends to have the final say and this month she’s certainly had plenty to say about it!

Despite the challenging conditions, the greens are beginning to recover nicely and we’re pleased with the progress being made. To help encourage this recovery, we have continued with weekly top dressing applications. This not only helps smooth the surfaces but also promotes healthier, firmer greens over the long term. Alongside this, we have been deliberately keeping a little more moisture in the greens than we would ideally like at this time of year. While firmer, faster conditions are always the aim on a chalk downland course such as ours, right now the priority is ensuring the plant remains healthy and continues to recover strongly heading into the summer months.

The irrigation project is also continuing to move forward well, although we have experienced a few teething issues along the way which was always to be expected with a project of this size and complexity. As I write this, we still have the fibre installation scheduled for next week, with the electrical works planned for August. Once everything is fully operational, the system will give us far greater control and precision over water management across the course, something that will be hugely beneficial in the years ahead.

Looking forward, our focus will gradually begin to shift towards increasing green speeds and encouraging the course to play firmer and faster as we move deeper into the season. The natural chalkland terrain really comes into its own when conditions allow the ball to run, and we’re excited to continue moving towards that style of golf throughout the summer.

Elsewhere on the course, we will soon be fertilising the tees to maintain strong, healthy growth through the busy playing season, while verti-draining of the greens is also planned to aid root development, relieve compaction and keep the surfaces performing as well as possible.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and patience while we continue to improve and refine the course. We look forward to seeing many of you out on the course over the coming weeks, hopefully with plenty of sunshine and a little less wind for everyone to contend with!

Dan Cornish, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs course

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The Park course

This month the weather has been challenging. We’ve had frosts, been cold, windy, some days hot and as of writing this, 15mm of rain which then leads us into a possible heatwave next week. As mentioned before in previous blogs, very tough growing conditions on all surfaces on the golf course.

This month the greens have been verti-drain to a depth of 6 inches/150mm and then followed by 10 tons of sand dressing. With the verti-drain breaking during spring maintenance we couldn’t do it then and with the course being quieter and reduced holes for Goodwoof it was an ideal time to do it for minimal disruption for golfers. This was then followed by our monthly foliar spray. We can now start to see consistent growth across all species of grass on the greens. With the help of the dressing, we now see a smoother surface which will help trueness and speed. Speeds have been consistent though, ranging from 8.5 - 9.5 on the stimp meter.

Pleasing to see this month the new bunkers come in to play as well as the bunkers that were filled in. MJ Abbotts came out at the beginning of the month to fill in these bunkers with China Clay sand, same as The Downs bunkers and the bunkers from Phase 1. Normally we would like to leave the sand to settle and firm up but with a busy calendar of golf days and competitions we took the decision to open straight away. You will agree with us that they have made a huge impact on the presentation and playability of the course.

We are looking forward to completing them all in Autumn or Spring 2027, depending on the availability of our contractors, MJ Abbots. We can now concentrate on getting the Ladies 3rd tee into play, which we plan to have in play by mid-June. We also continue to water the trees which were planted in Phase 2 of The Masterplan, which most have taken well in these tough conditions.

The Copse

The Copse has also had a mini maintenance on the greens. Instead of the verti-drain, we have used the pro core with 13mm tines to a depth of 5 inches/125mm. This was then also followed by a sand dressing and dragged in. The greens suffer a lot from pitch marks not being repaired, so if you use The Copse, like The Park, please repair them. The greens have had also the same foliar spray as the main greens. A selective weedkiller has been applied to all the mounds around the Copse to improve presentation and playability. This will also help to promote the fescue to come through. The Short Game practice bunkers have also been topped up with fresh sand.

To finish we had special visitor from the United States this month. Brad Owen, former Head of Agronomy at Augusta National. Brad was at Augusta for 38 years and now works for our Agronomists, Turfgrass. Brad held a Q&A with the team, in which you can imagine, we all had a lot of questions! It was a great insight into what happens day to day at Augusta and preparation for The Masters.

Look forward to seeing you on the course

Sam Enticknap, Deputy Head Greenkeeper of The Park and Copse courses

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