Golf courses across the UK face unprecedented challenges in maintaining healthy fairways after the hottest and driest spring on record. Due to drought conditions, heat waves and heavy games, DLF seeds are providing expert advice to golf course managers and proven seed solutions to protect future seasons.
For turf managers, this is not a one-time challenge, but a new model. Especially the fairway, with busy flows and hydrophobic “dry spotted” soils were hit, slowing down recovery and reducing supervision windows. Below the surface, the results of the next season have been decided, so what can you do not only survive but also thrive?
Stuart Yarwood, Regional Technical Manager at DLF Seeds, has some advice on how to protect the impact of future Dry Spells through smart turf management.
“Resilience has nothing to do with a species, but about balance,” he said. “Each grass brings unique advantages, and when mixed intelligently, they can cause falls that can be restored faster and keep speeches in drought.
“The deep roots and curly leaves of the petals are naturally tolerant. The slender and strong creepy red restores root recovery; chewing provides fineness and root quality, while hard and sheep increase density on poorer soil. The cumbersome roots of curved roots provide stability, restore lower tolerance while being easily tolerated while being modeled, beyond the model and beyond the business. A quick cover is crucial.”
Plant diversity is an insurance policy: if one species shakes, others fill the gap. This strategy forms the backbone of the mixed formula, with each main line mixture of Johnson Sports Seed and DLFs being carefully tuned grass tubes working in a harmonious way to protect your surface from the subsequent climate.
J Sustain Fairway It is the ultimate “climate guardian” whose five-face cue blends hard, slim, solid, chewy and sheep work together like a defensive line. J Fescue For green, t-shirt, close and fairway smooth, balanced and adaptable all-around players, and J Premier Fairway is a dedicated premium fescue cocktail for fairways that provide consistency, density and top performance.
Johnson’s new 2025 recipe J Fairway Is another GameChanger – with 5% Teetop Browntop bends, each bag of plants equals 10 million plants! Its roots are the fairway together for excellent elasticity and accelerated recovery. When the traffic is high and fast recovery is required, J Ultrafine Rye The range is your emergency service – 25%, 50% or 100% Ultrafine rye for excellent matches and presentations. For coastal conditions, you can consider a 100% slender creeping red fescue mixture J Link – Salt resistance, windproof and reproduction to achieve authenticity.
As the fall provides the ideal conditions for supervision, Yarwood urges course managers to take positive steps right away: assess fairway conditions, match seed selection to on-site needs, reduce compaction, and empower to encourage deeper rooting, and use wetting agents to rehydrate. Protecting new seedlings from traffic and setting reality golfers’ expectations are also key to successful recovery.
“This year is cruel, but smart oversight is your defense,” Yarwood concluded. “By combining plant diversity, best practice turf management and DLF unrivaled seed purity, golf course managers can make their soccer lanes tough, playable and sustainable enough.”
