Dear Member,

I thought I’d drop you a quick line to give you some data on the rainfall situation so far this autumn/winter.

As you will be aware if you’ve played recently, the courses are very, very wet and have suffered multiple closures. Why is that? Well, if we look at the combined rainfall in September through to December, we’ve exceeded 370mm or 15 inches (50% of our expected total annual rainfall in four months!). Compare this against the combined monthly average for this period of 266mm or 10.6 inches and the conclusion it has been consistently very wet indeed.

All areas are feeling the pressure. The greens are much softer than usual, fairways and tees are also spongy and often have puddles on or near to them, and the lakes are constantly being stopped from draining into the River Wey by its high level. Mill 2 and 3 fairways are next in line for replacement secondary drainage programmed-in next summer and walking on them you can understand why. The fairways we installed these new drains into during summer 2022 – Church 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 – are fairing much better by comparison.

How does the forecast look going forward? Short-term more heavy rain I’m afraid. Medium-term there’s the promise of colder but crucially drier weather towards mid-month. Forecasting appears to have been very difficult to do, and we’ve had the promise of dry weather several times recently only for our hopes to be dashed. There’s cause to be optimistic though and that’s what I’m sticking to!

The greens team have worked hard through this period trying to keep the water moving into our drainage systems and off the property. Shallow and deep solid tine aeration, compressed air aeration, pressure jetting drainage pipes and outlets, pumping water held in collection areas and finally dealing with last week’s flood too. We’ve been very busy and are fighting the good fight, although at times it doesn’t feel like we’re winning. A little help from mother nature would be greatly appreciated!

In closing, it’s disappointing the courses aren’t able to cope completely with this exceptional weather but with change on the horizon all being well, we can hopefully look forward to improved playing conditions. We’ll keep doing our very best in the meantime.

John Lockyer
Director of Golf Course Maintenance