The Overwatering Myth

[JSPayne]

BTW....regarding the rain incident, I don't know what part of the country you are in, but we had a similar thing happen here at my course in CA. Our system runs off ET calculated by our on course weather station. We've been without rain forever and often weather forecasts aren't incredibly accurate. When I left for the day, there was only a 30% chance of rain. If we didn't get it, the course being on the edge and F&F already would suffer and be overly dry if I chose to shut the system off. So I let it go......and it watered, not alot, because the ET was not that high, but it watered. And it did rain that night. So any homeowner around my course would have seen the same thing you did. But at this time of year for us, I can't rely on the weather forecast enough to turn the system off until we start getting some more regular rain or lower temperature during the day that don't pose the threat of drying the course out too much if it doesn't rain.

Now.....what does concern me is when I drive to work in the early morning in the middle of a rainy winter, and homeowners' and city landscape irrigation is still running in the middle of a downpour.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I spent some time on the phone with a USGA rep today.  He indicates there is some ongoing research into the problems of wet approach areas.  With his permission, I am writing about it in Golf Industry, but with lead times it will be a while before that comes out.

Short version is that sometimes, back to back sprinklers, poorly placed and adjusted can contribute to a problem they were meant to solve!

[Bradley Anderson]

I spent some time on the phone with a USGA rep today.  He indicates there is some ongoing research into the problems of wet approach areas.  With his permission, I am writing about it in Golf Industry, but with lead times it will be a while before that comes out.

Short version is that sometimes, back to back sprinklers, poorly placed and adjusted can contribute to a problem they were meant to solve!

Jeff,

I have to say that my biggest challenge with respect to irrigation programming is part circles. If you don't know the precise arc of the sprinkler you're really just guessing how much water it is applying.

That's another thing about this issue. After these complex systems are installed you have to almost dedicate someone to maintaining them and inspecting the performance of hundreds of sprinklers. As clubs cut back on budgets this is an area that may be targeted, but you really need to spend the time that sprinklers require.

[Greg Chambers]

Greg,

Given that you've said you've injected wetting agent like Ian has, I would guess you are a super. As such, I'm sure you probably considered all of the below, but please run through answers for them for me as well if you don't mind:

Choose one particular example, hopefully the most recent, you remember where a course you played was overwatered.

- Did you notice ANY dry spots, anywhere, on the course, even if where your ball ended up was wet most of the time?

there wasn't a dry spot on the course

- Did you happen to notice what kind of irrigation system? New automated heads, or old ones, triangular spacing or single row?

Toro irrigation, less than ten years old

- Is there any chance the course had just overseeded, fertilized or put down a wall-to-wall chemical application that needed to be watered in before you played?

nothing that I saw that needed to be watered

- Any idea how many people were on the maintenance crew?

around 15

- What was the overall level of maintenance? What kind of course was it?

resort course, bigger budget than mine

- Are you aware of any special water restrictions (there is a course in my area that has restrictions such that it takes three days to water his entire course......as such he often has to put down more water in certain areas to carry him through the days he has to go without before the cycle catches that same area again)?

none, new system, good pump capacity

I'm sure I could think of more relevant questions, but if you wouldn't mind, answers to these above would be helpful. And if you think there's no point in pondering all of the above, I ask you.......if one of the above is truly a reason why you experienced the course "overwatered," how do you recommend getting around that result when the above factors play a role?

I played this course numerous times all summer long, always wet.  I've been fortunate enough to get out and play other courses this year, and I found only a few that I considered were not over watered.

[Greg Chambers]

BTW....regarding the rain incident, I don't know what part of the country you are in, but we had a similar thing happen here at my course in CA. Our system runs off ET calculated by our on course weather station. We've been without rain forever and often weather forecasts aren't incredibly accurate. When I left for the day, there was only a 30% chance of rain. If we didn't get it, the course being on the edge and F&F already would suffer and be overly dry if I chose to shut the system off. So I let it go......and it watered, not alot, because the ET was not that high, but it watered. And it did rain that night. So any homeowner around my course would have seen the same thing you did. But at this time of year for us, I can't rely on the weather forecast enough to turn the system off until we start getting some more regular rain or lower temperature during the day that don't pose the threat of drying the course out too much if it doesn't rain.

Now.....what does concern me is when I drive to work in the early morning in the middle of a rainy winter, and homeowners' and city landscape irrigation is still running in the middle of a downpour.

I'm in the mountain west, where water is like gold.  To me it is very disappointing to see irrigation running while it's raining.  Somebody should be back at the shop turning it off.

[JSPayne]

Greg,

Thanks for the response......for once, a seemingly unemotional logical observation. From all the info you've given, I can only conjecture at a few things......PURELY my opnion.....by no means take these thoughts as concrete examples for all "overly wet" courses.

But with the observations you mentioned, I can only think that the super (1) doesn't play much golf and therefore may have no real comprehension of the playability and is concerned more with aesthetics or (2) the super may be inexperienced in understanding and operation of irrigation, it's purpose and thresholds, and his system that puts it out there.

Super to super, as from what I've experienced we are a friendly industry, if I'm playing his course often, I'd probably approach him and try to get an up front answer. No need to lecture of course, but maybe he's just unaware. In any case, for any course that is perceived to be "overwatered," an honest discussion of observation and possible correction serves everyone much better than returning to a public forum, or even just by word of mouth, to spread the word of a less than perfect experience and trash the PR of the club.

Not saying you do this at all Greg.......but there are too many, including some on this site, that do without even making an attempt at understanding first. Which is what I really feel this thread was started for.

[Sean_A]

JS

At least to some degree, it sounds as if folks are stating why some courses/areas are over-watered rather than just drawing a line under it with a myth/not myth determination.  I can understand that on some level supers are rolling the dice where predicting the weather is concerned and erring on the side of caution.  I can also understand that supers have the membership as a boss and what that may or may no entail.  However, I am not blaming supers for too much water, I am simply stating that over-watering is not a myth regardless of the intentions of supers. 

Back to grass types.  Can you (or any super) identify types of grass that are better suited for your local climate in terms of using less resources?  If so, how much would the quality of the greens suffer for using a more "native" grass?  Would golfers generally accept the tradeoff given rising prices?  For anybody, should golfers accept the tradeoff?

Ciao   

[JSPayne]

Sean,

Thanks for the response. I do understand what you are getting at. With some tens of thousands of courses in the US, I agree that it is probably safe to say that some courses are overwatered. I think the point of this thread was mainly that many courses do get unjustifiably labelled overwatered because of one golfers one bad experience at one particular moment in time. To this end, I agree with the original poster that at least 95% of the supers I know and of courses that I am familiar with are extremely water concious and would only irrigate to an "overly wet" state if some maintenance task called for it.

In answer to your other questions, though somewhat off the topic, I would say yes, there are definetely certain grasses that are better suited for certain regions than others. I can speak personally for my area here in the northern valley of CA, in my opinion, Bentgrass greens with Bermudagrass everywhere else would be the most efficient combination. Bentgrass, especially in USGA greens, can be watered deeply and infrequently, tends to get less disease (from my experience) and requires less nitrogen. The same holes true for Bermudagrass over other grass types for the rest of the course. And while it still may take a similar amount of water to keep greens alive and healthy due to the traffic and stress they receive, the rest of the course would most definetely use less water with Bermuda since it is an extremely drought tolerant plant with deep rooting systems even in tough, compacted soils.

That being said, I think golfers of all types and abilities would agree that diversity in courses is part of the enjoyment of the game. We have Bent greens with wall to wall Ryegrass, which is extremely difficult to keep alive in the summer heat, and uses more water and slightly more nutrients to keep healthy. However, we are also the second highest priced daily fee course in the area. The reality is the course was designed and grown to create a certain experience for the golfer, as we are one of very few courses in the area with this combination of playing surfaces, and we've passed the higher costs of maintenance on the customer to let them make the decision on what they'd want to play on, and we are still holding our own with revenues, even in these tough times.

Basically, if supers could grow a course the way they wanted to, without having to worry about business, member requests, public opnion, owners desires and whims, etc etc I think you would see alot of courses with a much different look and feel.