Climate Change Challenges for Greenkeepers 4. The Circle of Decline

Who can forget 1976 when we all burned up through the summer holidays? And 1995 now seems like a stupid year for me to try to build a golf course in one of the driest regions of the country and it was tough work, but we didn't know what summer would be like from one year to the next. However, since the mid 90's, choosing your best summer has all become a bit of a Blur, sometimes with no Oasis in sight :-). I have now lost count of the summers like 76 and 95, because they have become all too regular and as we've seen more recently this is now starting to hit home hard for those of us trying to maintain greens.

July 18, 2026

Greens are Baking, we have to act Now to avoid Autumn Renovation failures

LDP, localised dry patch on bolwing green

Across the UK this summer, bowling greens are being baked in the intense summer heat. Weeks of hot, dry weather have left surfaces bare, cracked, and rock-hard. For many clubs, the underlying soil has crossed into a more serious condition — hydrophobicity — where the soil physically repels water, a phenomenon known as Localised Dry Patch.

If that’s where your green is today, you’ve got a problem.

You can simply can't wait until your usual mid-September renovation

July 18, 2026

Breaking into the Circle of Decline this Autumn

Yes, I'm thinking about Autumn already. Why?, It's all to do with the devastating effect of Localised Dry Patch on many greens this year. I've ever had so many people get in touch. It looks like the more regular occurrence of extreme heat and long dry spells is demonstrating the problem of excessively sandy rootzones, much better than I could ever hope to explain...

July 17, 2026

Climate Change Challenges for Greenkeepers – Part 3: Keeping Bowling Greens Alive During a Heatwave

Heatwaves demand a change of priorities. Stop opening the surface, water deeply, hand-treat dry patches and let the clippings fly. Here’s how to keep your bowling green alive without making the underlying problems worse.

July 16, 2026

Climate Challenges for Greenkeepers 2. Fixing your green with a proven NotDressing Programme

There comes a point in every long-running problem where the evidence becomes too obvious to ignore. For many of the bowling clubs that get in touch to ask about solving green performance problems, I think they are now at that point with sand.

After another summer of heat, dry patch, weak turf, hydrophobic soil, disease pressure, uneven surfaces, irrigation panic and increasing renovation costs, the question can no longer be: “What top dressing are we putting on this autumn?”