A programme of Johnsons J Fairway seeding has been praised by the greenkeeping team at Woodbridge Golf Club in Suffolk after delivering outstanding performance for more than a decade.
Such is the consistency and quality of results from the 100% fescue blend on the fairways, Course Manager Paul Lawrence is now employing another 100% fescue mix from the Johnsons Sports Seed range on the clubs 27 greens as they seek to improve drought and disease tolerance.
Woodbridge Golf Club boasts 9-hole and 18-hole courses, and is renowned for its stunning heathland surroundings.
When Lawrence joined the club in 2014, Johnsons J Fairway was already extensively used across the fairways and, ten years later, remains the only mixture that suits their conditions.
“It would be remiss not to keep an eye on new mixtures, but we continue to find that nothing performs like J Fairway year-in, year-out” says Lawrence. “It gives us fantastic, hard-wearing surfaces and has demonstrated outstanding tolerance to drought over the years.”
Lawrence emphasises that this was particularly evident during the summers of 2018 and, more recently, 2022.
He says: “Despite the extreme drought, as soon as the rain returned the fairways came back in a flash which is testament to its recovery, and the deep rooting nature of fine fescues. It can also be sown late into the year and it’ll establish and germinate as soon as conditions are right.”
Johnsons J Fairway blends five top-ranking fescue cultivars to deliver sustainable fairways with improved sward quality and reduced management cost.
Ideal for heathland and parkland courses, J Fairway has high visual merit and shoot density, along with industry-leading tolerance to drought and turf diseases including Fusarium.
“Because of how well this mix performs, we are now in a position of not having to conduct much in the way of overseeding – more just monitoring and spot-treating certain ‘bottleneck’ areas,” says Lawrence.
In an attempt to replicate the resilient results on the greens, Lawrence has recently embarked on an overseeding programme with Johnsons J Fescue on the back of advice of DLF’s Craig Spooner and local distributor Aitkens.
Lawrence says: “We’d like to achieve a bent/fescue composition which, moving forwards, will put us in a better position to withstand environmental pressures and lower our inputs of water and fertiliser. We’re overseeding twice a year and are already seeing fantastic results!”