“I’ve never experienced conditions as punishing as this summer”

The course manager of a golf club in Kent has said in his 40 years of greenkeeping he has never experienced conditions like what he has this summer.

Kent and South London has become one of eight areas in mostly southern England that have been declared to be in a drought following several weeks of hot, dry weather that included two heatwaves.

South East Water has introduced a hosepipe ban in Kent, although golf courses can still be irrigated at certain times of the day. A recent aerial video of a golf course in Kent shows how much the drought has affected the course.

Now, North Foreland Golf Club, which irrigates the course off its own reservoir, has told ITV News that the reservoir is currently more than two thirds down on what it would usually be, and the club is now just 10 days away from having to rely on mains water.

Course manager Simon Grand said. “In 40 years in greenkeeping, I’ve never experienced conditions as punishing as this summer has been.
“It’s brought some major challenges for us managing the turf in these conditions.

“At the moment we are having to conserve as much water as we can because we are limited on resources. Our reservoir is 70 percent down on where we would be normally.

“We’re targeting the watering more specifically to greens and tees on the golf course.

“Our main issue is surrounding a drought order.

“That would mean we can’t rely on mains water. So we would have to rely on what’s in the ground here and what comes out of our borehole.”
General manager Chris Dowrick added: “We’ve got a lot of footfall, so they are continually wearing away the turf.

“Without the rainfall to top up our reservoir we’re relying on mains water now so we’ve got the maintenance cost.

“This autumn we’ll have to increase man hours and turfing, so it’s gone from one extreme to the other.

“Our costs could run into tens of thousands.

“It’s worrying as with active fish life in the reservoir, we can’t take much more out.”

This comes as activists in France vandalised golf courses amid water usage restrictions.