24th November 2021
Rainbow seen from Sundridge Park GC’s clubuhouse
Sundridge Park Golf Club boast two eighteen-hole courses tucked away in a beautiful pocket of greenery in an otherwise bustling and urban part of Kent, and has been offering picturesque and challenging golf to members for over a century. In recent years however, one of the biggest challenges on the course – for both golfers and greenkeepers alike – had been increasingly waterlogged greens, diminishing an otherwise superlative golfing experience.
With a commitment to excellence firmly at the forefront of the club’s agenda, Turfdry was engaged to deliver its industry-leading greens drainage solution across the course. However, with 36 holes to consider, the investment required to deliver the solutions required was prohibitively expensive for one or even two years’ expenditure. Consequently, Turfdry worked with the club to develop a schedule that would deliver comprehensive greens drainage across the course over a 5-year period – not only allowing for the greens drainage to be conducted in a financially responsible manner, but crucially also allowing this to fit into the broader suite of investments made by the club during this time, including improvements to the clubhouse, bunkers, and irrigation system. By considering all of these works holistically, the club was able to achieve multiple goals with optimal cost-effectiveness, whilst minimising the disruption to its members.
In view of this success, the club has widened the scope of its ambition, and has engaged Turfdry to develop a second 5-year plan: this time to deliver comprehensive fairway and arterial drainage improvements, as well as consulting on an attenuation system to help mitigate flooding.
Following extensive topographical surveying combined with on-the-ground investigations, a full hydrological assessment of the course has been developed, analysing the way in which water moves onto and across the course, and how drainage of each section of the course might best interconnect with a broader system of effective water management.
This means that the club can prioritise its most problematic areas of waterlogging for initial works, whilst maintaining the tremendous benefits in cost-effectiveness brought about by considering works on a more long-term and large-scale basis.
Having completed work on the West Course’s 18th fairway last autumn, Turfdry have returned to Sundridge to install new drainage systems on the same course’s 4th, 8th & 9th holes.
We’re already deep into the design work for the next phase at Sundridge, so be sure to check back for future updates; in the meantime, see the installation in action with the below video.
VIdeo showing Turfdry’s installation of fairway drainage at Sundridge Park, as part of the ongoing drainage project undertaken at the club.
