How one extraordinary summer changed the way High Post Golf Club thinks about its future
Three summers. One green. One changing climate. The photographs above were taken from almost exactly the same position over three consecutive summers. They illustrate why Project Water became inevitable.
The Afternoon Everything Changed
At three o’clock on a hot July afternoon, every litre mattered.
Whilst golfers continued to enjoy their round, a very different conversation was taking place behind the scenes. It wasn’t about competitions, course set-up or green speeds. It was about water, how much remained, how many more days our licensed abstraction allocation could continue protecting the greens, and perhaps the most uncomfortable question of all: what would happen if the rain simply didn’t come?
Every golf club has a weather story. Ours just happened to become a water story. We celebrate the long evenings of summer and endure the endless rain of winter. Droughts are nothing new either. But this summer felt different. It wasn’t simply the lack of rainfall; it was the growing realisation that water, something we had perhaps taken for granted for too long, had become one of the Club’s most significant strategic risks.
For most golfers, water is almost invisible. It appears when a tap is turned on or an irrigation system starts. For those responsible for caring for a golf course, it is never that simple. Every decision influences the health of the turf, the quality of the playing surfaces and, ultimately, the experience of every member and visitor who walks onto the first tee.
As the dry weather persisted, conversations that once felt theoretical became daily operational decisions. Irrigation schedules were reviewed almost constantly. Priorities changed. Difficult choices had to be made.
The question was no longer how to present the course at its very best.
It became how to protect it.
That distinction matters. Fairways recover remarkably quickly when rain eventually returns, and rough will naturally regain its colour. Greens are different. They are the most intensively managed surfaces on the golf course and, once seriously damaged, can take many months to recover. Protecting them became our absolute priority.
Looking back now, it is clear that this wasn’t simply another dry summer. It was the moment Project Water stopped being an idea and became a necessity. Our objective isn’t to win an argument about water. It’s to ensure that High Post Golf Club remains resilient for the generations that follow us.
It Started With a Question
Looking back, it is tempting to think that Project Water was born out of this summer’s drought.
In truth, it began several months earlier.
In November 2025, I attended the Golf Club Managers’ Association National Conference, held under the theme “Future Ready” – a conference built around the challenges and opportunities that will shape the future of golf club management. Strategy, sustainability and long-term resilience featured prominently throughout the programme, encouraging managers to look beyond the day-to-day operation of their clubs and consider the bigger picture.
One session, led by sustainable agronomy and water management specialist Dr Tom Young, has stayed with me ever since.
He made a statement that was as simple as it was powerful:
“If you don’t have a water source, you don’t have a golf club.”
Dr Young challenged delegates to stop thinking about water as a greenkeeping issue and to start treating it as a boardroom issue. His message was that water security had become business critical. Clubs needed to understand where their water came from, how much they used, what it cost, and, perhaps most importantly how resilient they would be if that source came under pressure. Waiting until restrictions arrived was no longer a strategy. Water needed to become a standing item on every Board agenda.
I returned to High Post and shared those discussions with the Board.
At the time, they felt like sensible, long-term considerations. Like many golf clubs, we had always operated within an abstraction licensing system and had successfully managed periods of dry weather before. Water was important, but it had never featured prominently in our long-term strategic thinking.
Within a matter of months, that changed.
Further correspondence with the Environment Agency regarding our abstraction licence coincided with one of the driest growing seasons in recent memory. The questions raised at the conference were no longer hypothetical. They had become immediate, practical and unavoidable.
Project Water did not begin because we had all the answers.
It began because we recognised we needed to start asking better questions.
The Summer That Changed Everything
If the GCMA Conference planted the seed, the summer of 2026 confirmed that Project Water was no longer an aspiration—it was an operational necessity.
The rainfall figures tell their own story.
Between March and July 2023, High Post recorded 410.6mm of rainfall. During the same period in 2025, that figure fell to just 90mm. Although the opening months of 2026 were unusually wet, rainfall during the critical growing season remained exceptionally low, with just 112.4mm recorded between March and July. July itself produced only 1.8mm of rain.
It was the cumulative effect of two exceptionally dry growing seasons.
Like many golf clubs, we were forced to make increasingly difficult decisions. Every litre of water had to be justified. Every irrigation cycle was reviewed. The objective was no longer to keep the entire golf course green; it was to protect the most valuable playing surfaces whilst allowing other areas of the course to respond naturally to the conditions.
That meant accepting that fairways would firm up, rough would lose colour and areas of the course would enter summer dormancy.
The greens were different.
Unlike fairways, greens cannot simply be left to recover after prolonged drought. They are the most intensively managed surfaces on the course and, if lost, can take many months—and considerable expense—to restore. Protecting them became our overriding priority.
Even with those measures in place, it became clear that our licensed abstraction allocation would not be sufficient to see us through the summer.
The Board therefore authorised the purchase of emergency tanker water.
No golf club wants to reach that point.
By the time this article was written, High Post had already taken delivery of 23 tanker loads, supplying almost 700 cubic metres of water simply to protect the greens. It was an emergency response to an exceptional set of circumstances—but it also reinforced a much bigger point.
Emergency tanker water is not a strategy.
It is a safety net.
The long-term answer must be to make better use of the water that already falls on our own site during the
wetter months of the year.
That realisation lies at the heart of Project Water.
Fact Box – High Post by the Numbers
Why these figures matter
During the critical March to July growing season, High Post received approximately 74% less rainfall across 2025 and 2026 than during the equivalent period in 2023 and 2024.
Although January and February 2026 were exceptionally wet, the Club currently has no means of capturing and storing that surplus winter rainfall for use during the summer.
Consequently, once the licensed abstraction allocation became exhausted, emergency tanker water became the only practical option for protecting the Club’s greens while longer-term solutions are developed.
Putting it into Context:
- 4,500m³ is equivalent to 4.5 million litres of water.
- At peak demand, the greens and practice facilities can require 50–60,000 litres every day.
- The 690m³ of tanker water delivered to date is enough to fill almost 280 average family swimming
pools (assuming approximately 2,500 litres per pool).
Looking Beyond High Post
The challenges facing High Post are far from unique.
Across southern England, golf clubs, farmers, sports grounds and local communities are all adapting to a climate that is becoming increasingly difficult to predict. Periods of prolonged rainfall are being followed by longer, hotter and drier summers, placing growing pressure on water resources and the infrastructure designed to manage them.
This summer has brought those challenges into sharp focus. July was the driest on record for England and Wales, with some parts of southern England receiving almost no meaningful rainfall. As temperatures climbed and demand increased, hosepipe restrictions were introduced across large parts of the country, affecting more than 23 million people.
Against that backdrop, it is understandable that many people ask a simple question: if we know our climate is changing, are we doing enough to prepare for it?
The answer is unlikely to lie in any single solution.
Protecting our internationally important chalk streams and groundwater aquifers must remain a priority. Equally, households, businesses and organisations all have a responsibility to use water wisely.
However, resilience also depends on investment. Every day, around 2.6 billion litres of treated drinking water is lost through leakage before it ever reaches customers. At the same time, England is investing in new reservoirs and strategic water infrastructure for the first time in a generation, recognising that future water security cannot rely solely on asking people to use less.
That is not an argument against protecting chalk streams or using water responsibly. Quite the opposite. It is a reminder that improving resilience requires a balanced approach, one that reduces demand, tackles unnecessary waste and invests in the infrastructure needed to capture and store water when it is available.
Project Water has prompted us to ask a similar question at High Post.
If we know that wetter winters and drier summers are becoming more common, should we simply accept that pattern, or should we adapt to it?
For us, the answer is straightforward.
The objective is not to take more water from the environment.
It is to make better use of the water that already falls on our own site.
That means capturing rainfall during the winter, storing it responsibly and using it efficiently during the
months when it is needed most. It is a principle that feels as relevant to a golf club as it does to the wider national conversation.
Project Water
Every challenge presents an opportunity. We could continue responding to each dry summer as it arrives, hoping the next one will be wetter. Or we can accept that our climate is changing and begin investing in a more resilient future.
Project Water is High Post Golf Club’s response.
It is not a single project, nor is it simply a proposal to build a reservoir. It is a long-term strategy to improve the Club’s water resilience, reduce our dependence on groundwater abstraction and ensure that High Post remains sustainable for future generations.
At its heart lies a simple principle.
When water is plentiful, we should do everything reasonably possible to capture it. When it is scarce, we should use it wisely.
Subject to planning permission and regulatory approval, Project Water will investigate a range of complementary initiatives, including rainwater harvesting from the clubhouse and maintenance facilities, improved irrigation efficiency, increased on-site storage and, ultimately, the creation of a winter storage reservoir capable of supplying irrigation during the summer months.
None of these measures, in isolation, provides the answer.
Together, however, they have the potential to fundamentally change the way High Post manages water.
Importantly, Project Water is about far more than resilience.
By harvesting rainfall that currently leaves the site unused, reducing reliance on groundwater abstraction and making every litre work harder, the project also represents a significant environmental opportunity. The objective is not to take more water from the environment; it is to become much better custodians of the water that nature already provides.
It is an ambitious programme, and there remains much work to do. Technical studies are underway, planning permission will be required and significant investment will be needed before the full vision can be realised.
However, this summer has reinforced one simple conclusion.
Doing nothing is no longer an option.
Written by Andy Rideout
Club Manager
High Post Golf Club
By GCMA
