09/17/2026
Late summer rains at top of golf course maintenance challenges in 2026
Whether frozen or not, precipitation — and massive amounts of it — became the biggest challenge for the region’s golf courses and their superintendents in 2026.
From large amounts of snow that sat on courses for extended periods of time in the winter to one of the wettest months of August in recent memory, golf course superintendents have seen their share of moisture this season.
“I’ve never in my career seen turf as wet as I saw it here this year,” said Eric Materkowski, the superintendent at St. Clair Country Club. “We went days and days and days with our maintenance schedule being interrupted because conditions were just too wet to do anything.”
St. Clair prohibited play for several days in August, allowing the course a chance to recover. While a course closure can frustrate a golfer, it became an unfortunate necessity.
“It required a lot of patience during that time,” said Materkowski, who also serves as the president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents of America. “That’s something we typically don’t do. But we had water just staying in areas. And then it got hot and humid, and disease pressure was very high. Having the right chemical applications, timely applications and applying the right chemistry was really important this year.”
Other courses felt the brunt of the late summer rains, as well.
“August was just so wet that it was hard to do anything,” said Jason Batchelor, superintendent at Moon Golf Club. “It was hard to cut. Everybody’s in the same boat. You spray more (disease preventing) chemicals than you do most years.
“It’s been so humid and is raining so often that everything you spray, nothing stays on the plant very long.”
Western Pennsylvania’s precipitation issues, however, weren’t just limited to August, which saw around ten inches of rain in the month in some spots. September 3 brought one of the largest single-day rain totals in recent history, with some areas getting over five inches in one night. And, long before that, precipitation caused issues locally.
“The winter of 2025-2026 was extremely cold with a lot of snow,” said Materkowski. “It was a real winter, which we haven’t seen in decades. That set us up for a wet early spring. We got a lot of rain in March. It was very wet.
“We didn’t have the opportunities over the winter to do some of the things we typically do on the golf courses. That time compressed, and then the spring weather shortened that window for spring maintenance.”
May, June and July were relatively dry months in which courses and their maintenance staffs were able to catch up to an extent.
A year ago, things were a bit different. Heavy storms through the spring of 2025 eventually gave way to an extended drought period in August in which rain wasn’t seen for nearly three weeks. This year, the drought hasn’t come.
That said, superintendents are seeing larger scale similarities in the habits of the Western Pennsylvania climate, with the occasional oddity.
“It seems like these weather patterns are becoming more normal,” said Materkowski. “But it feels like, in our region, we’re seeing something each year that we may not have seen before, to that extent.”
While courses throughout the region go through similar challenges, Batchelor does acknowledge that there is a difference with his public course compared to private courses. And the difference comes down to how revenue is earned.
“What hurts us in a year like this is, we typically do better (financially) when the course is brown,” said Batchelor who, a year ago, was forced to purchase water in order to keep Moon Golf Club’s grounds hydrated. “When you have a month like August, yeah, it’s green out there, but if it’s raining every other day, or there’s a threat of rain, or it’s cart path only, all of those things keep golfers away.
“The course looks great. But, on the public end, we’re not generating the revenue as we do in other years, like last year, when we’re burnt out. That’s where I see the difference between public and private. Country clubs don’t really have that. They’re getting revenue one way or the other.”
Public courses make up roughly 70 percent of the golf courses in the WPGA’s jurisdiction. And just because those courses aren’t spending money on water doesn’t mean that they aren’t spending on maintenance.
“This year, I didn’t have to buy water, but I had to spray more chemicals,” said Batchelor, who has a staff of five employees working daily at one of the region’s busier public courses. “It’s a juggling act year after year.”
The hope of Batchelor — and golf course maintenance employees in general — is that the public understands the challenges being faced, their variances and complexities.
“The course restrictions we put in place, whether that be stakes, cart path only, whatever, we’re doing it for a reason,” he said. “We’re protecting the course for them. A little bit on inconvenience for a couple of days can really set the course up for the rest of the year.
“We’re not doing it to make golfers mad, even though we know these things can be a pain in the butt. Our number one job is to protect the golf course.”
Renovations galore
St. Clair County Club has gone through a massive renovation over the last two years, including the reconstruction of its historic 9-hole Terrace Course. Beyond everyday course maintenance, weather has posed challenges there, too.
“It’s definitely impacted our project,” said Materkowski. With the extended periods of wet weather, golf course renovation is slower. It’s harder to do it during wet weather patterns. There are times that contractors simply just can’t work. It wouldn’t be productive and would result in a bad, finished product.”
St. Clair is far from alone. Longue Vue Club finished a sizable renovation that closed portions of the course over the last two years and many more have either completed, are working on or are planning course renovations. Despite the rocky climate, golf course renovations in the region — some at a mass scale and others more simplistic — are booming.
“The uptick that started post-COVID has continued,” said Materkowski. “Golf contractors are busy. The supplies we use in golf course construction are in demand. When golf course builders are done with one project they’re going right to the next. The momentum’s been strong and I don’t know when it’s going to slow down.
“It’s been good for golf. A lot of things that had been deferred and needed to be done to golf courses are now being done. It’s elevating golf courses as a whole in our region.”
Autonomous mowers
Autonomous technology has infiltrated nearly every avenue of life. There are self-driving cars, robotic vacuums for your home and now, even grass mowers that operate without the push from a human.
Increasingly, golf courses in the region are investing in autonomous mowers, with some clubs seemingly having them on every hole of their golf course.
“The benefit is incredible,” said Materkowski. “We continue to deal with staffing challenges that don’t ever seem to go away. Golf course maintenance is hard. It’s physical and requires weekend work. It requires people to get up early in the morning, to work in the elements and to be outside. Those things don’t appeal to people right now when they’re job seeking. Autonomous mowing has helped tremendously with that.”
Materkowski has seen autonomous mowing become a focal point of the industry at large.
“We have our golf course industry show every February,” he said. “There is an education piece and a trade show piece there. Maybe three years ago, the autonomous mowing vendors had a small presence. This year, the presence was large. It was everywhere you looked. That technology has moved really fast and it’s been proven in the results, the quality of the cut. And these things can work around the clock.”
He has seen and heard the criticism about automation resulting in less opportunities for employment but insists that is not the case.
“It’s not costing people jobs,” said Materkowski, who had a circuit system installed in St. Clairs new course design during renovations to allow for more mowers to dock throughout the landscape. “We’re not laying people off and we’re still utilizing people. What it’s doing is allowing us to take that same workforce and use them elsewhere. I tell my members, it’s allowing us to have them do work you’re going to appreciate.”
