LDP causes large areas and even whole greens to resist moisture. The soil has become Hydrophobic. Water will lie on the green surface for a long time and the soil underneath will remain powder dry and unable to support plant life. The result is large brown patches on the surface where the thatch eventually dries out so much that it becomes hard and brittle. At this point it will shrink to below surface level, causing large pans of low lying turf which of course affect the performance of the green to a level that is unacceptable. Temporary measures such as sarrel rolling and wetting agent application can help to get water into the green, but the water still wont adhere to the soil particles below making sure that most of the irrigation water runs straight through to the drains.

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Bowling clubs are susceptible to any expert who comes along claiming to have a quick fix, usually in the form of a product that claims to eat thatch or cure dry patch and of course it is never as simple as that. However, these small, under resourced clubs will often choose the seemingly fast track solution over the reality of the hard slog to physically reduce thatch and start to bring life back to the soil over a longer period. As part of this, the annual ritual of top-dressing, with its rather dramatic appearance including lots of hands on deck, big bags of stuff to man-handle and the general drama of the event for a small bowling club, engenders the belief that this “surely must be doing a lot of good?” In this way, top-dressing has become a tradition at most clubs, almost a talisman, an offering to the great god of the greens to ensure good performance next year. When the good performance is short lived or even absent, the blame is always laid somewhere else, never with the top-dressing. This inevitably results in the greenkeeper being fired and the next expert being wheeled in to scatter his magic dust.

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