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.

The club had prioritised the West Course’s 18th fairway as the most pressing area of concern, so the fairway drainage installation began there in 2021. Subsequently, Turfdry have returned to the club to deliver two further phases of fairway drainage in 2022, with the West Course’s 4th, 8th & 9th holes having systems installed during the summer, and the East Course’s 2nd & 7th holes having Hydraway drainage systems installed during the autumn.

Work has already begun on the next phase of improvement works at Sundridge Park, so be sure to check back for future updates; in the meantime, see more detail on Turfdry’s greens drainage work at Sundridge Park here, or take a look at some more fairway drainage projects here.