The Spring of 2025 was the hottest and driest on record. Four heatwaves, rainfall 40% below the average and soaring evapotranspiration have left reservoirs low and much of England officially in drought.
For turf managers, this isn’t a one-off challenge — it’s the new pattern. Fairways, in particular, have taken a hit with heavy traffic and hydrophobic ‘dry patch’ soils slowing recovery and reducing the overseeding window.
Beneath the surface, next season’s outcomes are already being decided so what can you do create surfaces than not only survive, but thrive?
Stuart Yarwood, Regional Technical Manager at DLF Seeds explores.
Resilience isn’t about one species — it’s about balance. Each grass brings unique strengths and, when blended intelligently, they create swards that can survive drought, recover faster and maintain presentation. The deep roots and rolled leaves of Fescues provide natural drought tolerance. Slender & Strong Creeping Red deliver rhizomatous recovery, Chewings provides fineness and root mass while Hard and Sheep’s add density on poorer soils. The creeping roots of Bents provide stability, boost drought recovery and wear tolerance, all with low inputs. Ultrafine Ryegrasses provide rapid establishment and resilience to traffic, ideal for situations where fast cover is critical.
Botanical diversity is an insurance policy: if one species falters, others fill the gap. This strategy forms the backbone of mixture formulation, with each Johnsons Sports Seed and Masterline mix from DLF a carefully tuned orchestra of grasses working in harmony to protect your surfaces from whatever the climate throws next.
Looking specifically at the Johnsons Sports Seed range, J Sustain Fairway is the ultimate ‘Climate Guardian’, with a five-fescue blend of Hard, Slender, Strong, Chewings and Sheep’s working together like a defensive line. J Fescue is a smooth, balanced and adaptable all-rounder for greens, tees, approached and fairways, while J Premier Fairway is a focused, premium fescue cocktail for fairways that provides consistency, density and top-class presentation. The new 2025 formulation of Johnson’s J Fairway is another gamechanger – featuring 5% Teetop Browntop Bent which equates to 10 million plants per bag! Its creeping roots stitch fairways together for outstanding resilience and accelerated recovery.
When traffic is high and recovery needs to be fast, the J Ultrafine Rye range is your emergency service – available with 25%, 50% or 100% ultrafine rye for superior play and presentation. For coastal conditions, you can consider the 100% Slender Creeping Red fescue blend of J Links – salt-tolerant, wind-tough and bred for true links authenticity.
The autumn brings warm soils, cool air and dews — perfect conditions for overseeding. Walk your fairways and study what’s survived to match seed choice to site conditions. Relieve compaction when soils soften, aerate to chase roots deeper and use wetting agents to re-wet profiles. Once overseeding is complete, protect seedlings from traffic and communicate realistic timelines with golfers.
2025 has been brutal, but intelligent overseeding is your defence. Combine botanical diversity, cultural best practice and DLF’s unrivalled seed purity to future-proof your fairways. Overseeding isn’t just repair — it’s an investment in resilience, playability and sustainability.
