An update from our Golf Course and Estates Manager, Derrick Johnstone.

Spring is an exciting time for golfers everywhere. It is a time of transition, increase in practices and there can definitely be some ups and downs when it comes to playability. Foxhills is built on heavy clay soil, which winters differently from surrounding golf courses. We can change from being soft and wet, to dry and bouncy very quickly. Grasses on most golf courses have been growing slowly, or not at all, for most of the winter. It will take some time before they really get going in the Spring and that will have an impact on playing conditions. Things like density, smoothness and divot recovery all depend on active grass growth, but that can’t start until soil temperatures reach a certain level. The soil temperatures in our greens are currently between 8.5 and 9.5 degrees, which is not far away from the double figures we need to activate the start of the growth. The issue we are currently having is night time temperatures are very low, then it gets warm from 10am onwards. We are noticing higher soil temperatures on Bernard Hunt. We have 2 main grass species on our greens, with Bent grass thriving, but Annual meadow grass still not growing, hence why they can look and play a little bumpy. This is why we overseed twice per year, as we wish to promote more Bent grass onto the greens.

April is a popular month for cultural practices like aeration, overseeding and topdressing, unfortunately there is some disruption on key playing areas when carrying out these tasks. Recovery time is usually quick, but if cool weather lingers then the impact of these practices may be noticeable for longer than planned. Just know that a little disruption now, will translate to better conditions throughout the year. I feel we recovered very quickly after the first greens maintenance window in February, but we then carried out the Spring greens overseeding, 4 weeks earlier than the last few years. With a surprising return of colder temperatures, this actually dropped us back in progress slightly.

Bernard Hunt greens play slightly ahead of the Longcross greens at the minute, even though they have received the exact same products and practices but carried out this overseeding just 7 days later. We have now purchased our own overseeder machine, so in future we can now delay this process until the temperatures are perfect, rather than booking in a contractor to do the works 6 months in advance while not knowing what the weather is going to be like. I am confident that all the greens will be up and running in the next week.

Our fairway dressing was a big success again, with the sand now almost fully disappeared into the profile. This has massively improved the winter playability at Foxhills. Following each year managing the courses, we learn a little more to structure maintenance periods to best suit our members. We are learning that Longcross greens take a little longer to wake up in the Spring. This could be due to soil type, surrounding trees or even elevation. Sean (Director of Golf) and I will consider this when planning for 2027.