Written by: Simon Burch
2026
With the Midlands enduring one of its driest, hottest summers on record in 2026, our biggest challenge was keeping greens playable without draining already-stretched water supplies. We don't use mains water for irrigation, relying instead on rainwater collected in our ponds and lakes – and with a fraction of the usual summer rainfall, levels were dropping fast.
The answer was a £1,200 soil moisture meter. As an independent course, every penny counts, and ongoing app subscriptions had put us off – until head greenkeeper Alex found a model with no subscription fees.
Previously, we ran our automatic irrigation across the whole course every night. Now Alex's team test each green at several points every morning. The app produces a satellite-style map, colour-coded red for dry, green for good and blue for too wet, which is shared with staff via WhatsApp so they can hand-water only where it's needed.
"It gives us an early warning of where water is needed before it gets critical," says Alex. "We didn't use the automatic system after that and we kept the greens playing well even on the hottest days. "Over the summer, I'd estimate we've easily halved our water usage."
