Greg’s Greenkeeping Blog July 2026

Greg’s Greenkeeping Blog – July 2026

By Greg Fitzmaurice, Course Manager  ·  July 2026

July at Hunley is what the year builds towards. Captains Day, the Club Championship, visiting parties and long summer evenings out on the course — it is the month when golf is at its most enjoyable and when the course naturally looks and plays at its best. The rough turns golden, the surfaces are firm and fast, and on a clear day there are few better places to be.

What we have worked towards over a number of years is reaching a point where none of that requires anything out of the ordinary from the team. The course is set up to a consistent standard week in, week out. When a big occasion arrives — a Captains Day, a Club Championship — it does not demand an extra push or a change of approach. The standard is already there. The events simply land in conditions that are the product of that ongoing consistency, and of July being the time of year when everything naturally peaks. That is how it should be, and is the consequence of long term planning.

Rainfall this month has been negligible, just a few millimetres across the whole of July. The course has handled it well overall, and the irrigation work carried out in recent years has made a clear difference to how we are able to manage through dry periods. However, a prolonged dry spell of this nature does leave its mark, and we would expect to see some turf loss in certain parts of the course — particularly in the higher traffic areas and some of the tees are again beginning to suffer.

This is a natural consequence of hot, dry conditions and not something that can be entirely avoided. The priority is to manage it as well as possible, protect the most important playing surfaces, and be ready to act quickly when rain and cooler conditions return and recovery becomes possible. Members may notice some wear developing in these areas, and we appreciate your understanding while we manage through it and prepare for recovery.

The greens have been in good condition throughout the month and have held up well through the dry. At the end of July we carried out pencil tining across all greens. This is a relatively gentle form of aeration — small solid tines are pushed into the surface to create fine channels without removing any material or significantly disrupting play. The primary purpose at this time of year is to open the surface and improve water infiltration, helping irrigation and any rainfall to penetrate more effectively rather than running off a surface that has become tight and sealed in the heat.

However, pencil tining is only part of the picture. What we are seeing beneath the surface on the greens is a degree of compaction that will need more substantial attention. This is where aeration becomes one of the most important tools in greenkeeping, and it is worth explaining why.

Soil compaction occurs when the pore spaces between soil particles are reduced — typically through repeated foot traffic, machinery and general wear over time. When soil becomes compacted, several things happen: water struggles to drain or infiltrate effectively; oxygen levels in the rootzone drop; and roots find it increasingly difficult to penetrate and develop. The result is a turf plant that is under stress, more susceptible to drought and disease, and less able to recover from damage.

Aeration addresses this by physically breaking up the compacted layer, whether through hollow coring — which removes small plugs of soil — or deeper solid tine work that fractures the profile below the surface. This restores the pore spaces, allows air and water back into the rootzone, and gives the grass plant the environment it needs to grow strongly and recover well. On a golf green in particular, where the soil is under constant pressure from foot traffic and close mowing, regular aeration is not optional — it is essential to the long-term health of the surface.

It is a question we sometimes hear — if the greens are playing well, why do they need work? The answer is that this is precisely the right time to act. Greenkeeping at its best is proactive, not reactive. It is far easier and less disruptive to maintain a healthy environment beneath the surface than it is to fix one that has deteriorated. By the time compaction is visibly affecting the playing surface, the problem is already well established and the recovery process is longer and more invasive. Carrying out aeration work while the greens are in good condition means we can keep them that way, rather than waiting for a problem to develop and then having to address it under pressure. The surface members are enjoying now is a reflection of that approach — and continued investment beneath it is what keeps it that way.

The new irrigation storage tank structure is complete, but the connection work — 3 phase power, water feed and pumps — has been paused for now. With a small team at full stretch during peak season, taking on that level of additional work alongside day-to-day course management is not realistic. It is the right call to hold off and do the job properly rather than rush it during the busiest period of the year. Work will resume once the operational demands of the season ease, and we will keep members updated on progress.

One benefit of dry conditions is that mowing requirements reduce across the course, and that frees the team up to tackle jobs that would not otherwise get done mid-season. This month we have been able to address a couple of areas that have been directly impacting play.

On Jaws and Trillo’s Torment, gorse to the right of the holes was cut back some time ago to encourage new regrowth and improve the long-term management of those areas. With light now reaching the bases of those stumps, long grass and other plants have established themselves in amongst the trunks, creating a situation where ball retrieval has become difficult and play has been slowed.

We have been able to strim and clear around the bases of the stumps, opening those areas up considerably. It is not an approach we would typically take (in most parts of the course we manage vegetation for the benefit of wildlife) but where an area is directly impeding play on two key holes and contributing to lost balls and slow golf, it is the right thing to do. The clearance will help keep play moving through those holes without fundamentally changing the challenge they present.

August will bring continued demand on the course and the team will be focused on maintaining standards through what is typically another busy month. We will be keeping a close eye on the areas most affected by the dry and be ready to support recovery as soon as conditions allow.

The greens aeration programme and the irrigation tank connection will both be priorities as we move into the autumn period. There is work still to do, but the course is in a good place and the season has gone well. Thank you for your continued support.