Rick...what we can't lose sight of is this fact...here in western Montana from April 1st thru Sept 1st, it might rain a TOTAL of four or five inches...that's a normal year. This one is drier...
So, when I say we are putting down 650,000 gallons per night right now, it's to keep the grass from dying.....not going dormant, but actually dying.....
We watch the weather and when its going to rain, we don't irrigate for a few days...when it heats up, the sprinklers come on....my course will have a mix of brown...green and yellow grass color and the course will firm up a lot by July....but for my tastes, it will still be too wet....what we have going for us by mid July is everything is brown, its dry, the forests are on fire, its in the 90's with no humidity...EVERYONE knows the routine and what to expect...less than an inch of rain for July...they realize how hard we work to keep everything alive and they shut up and say nothing about the yellow and brown grass...