This photo shows a golfer on a rare sunny day this July, as many days have seen rain, clouds, or both,

By Tommy Osborne

Golf Course Maintenance

Rainy days bring savings, but also challenges, to local golf courses

Jul 21, 2025 | 4:43 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – This July has been characterized largely by rain and cloudy days, which has been frustrating for some golfers this season. However, according to the Prince George Golf and Country Club, the customer base has remained consistent despite cooler, wetter, conditions.

“We haven’t seen a dramatic difference in sales numbers. We’ve been on par with what we were last year, it seems to be that people still come out whether it’s rainy or not,” said the Golf Club’s General Manager David Wilson.

As far as course maintenance goes, the rain has been a big benefit in cost saving. Don McDermid, the Golf Club’s Assistant Superintendent, says on a hot day the course can use more than one million litres of water, so saving a significant amount of water, on top of the electricity costs of pumping all the water out, can equate to thousands of dollars saved a day.

“When the machinery isn’t running, you’re saving more money, you’re not having equipment repairs, irrigation upgrades can be done within the budget and not having to spend them on repairs, so that’s huge savings,” McDermid said.

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McDermid notes the course is on its own well, so the water normally used doesn’t put pressure on the city’s water supply either way. As for the soil of the course, McDermid adds the soil is mostly sandy soil, so all the rain won’t become a flooding issue. In fact, as far as grass growth is considered, it’s been a huge benefit.

“This year we took advantage of the wet weather and we did some projects that are more suited for that. So we started the new area on a hole that we’re rebuilding, we put in close to 30,000ft² of sod, which is a lot of lawns,” McDermid said.

The rain has certainly brought many positives to the course, but McDermid adds it’s not all positives, as it does bring several challenges. Among them is handling species other than grass growing on the course, as consistently wet conditions open the door for other species to take root.

“Moss is a wet weather plant, and then we get more and more of that invading the greens and we get significant amount more disease pressure, that’s our biggest concern. So after 8 to 10 hours of continuous leaf wetness, the fungal diseases start to form, and that’s a big problem for us. So right now we’re managing it through cultural practices and proper fertility and we’re staying ahead of it, but at some point it may have to turn more invasive chemical treatments. Fortunately to date, we haven’t had to deal with that,” he said.

“When the soils get saturated, the compaction levels go up and the soil squeezes down. It’s equated to a mailman going across your lawn, and everybody’s got that little wear spot, whether it’s a mailman or the neighbour’s kids. Well, we have 200 mailmen on our greens every single day, so we really see a lot of wear,” he continued.

Regardless of what the rest of the summer holds weather-wise, McDermid is confident the course will remain in great shape, saying he and the rest of the crew are prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

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