Watering golf courses
James Moore
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05/09/2019
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357
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Description
A USGA green session short demonstrating the need for watering golf courses.
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- [00:00:01.160]Welcome to another USGA green section video short.
- [00:00:05.200]This video is entitled The Necessity of Hand Watering Greens,
- [00:00:09.025]although it could also be entitled Why do they have to water while I'm trying to
- [00:00:14.023]play golf?
- [00:00:17.320]Most golfers are well aware that in most parts of the country,
- [00:00:20.866]irrigation systems are an absolute necessity in order to maintain high
- [00:00:24.862]quality turf throughout the year.
- [00:00:27.560]Perhaps no other aspect of golf course maintenance has undergone greater
- [00:00:31.442]improvement over the past 20 years than the design and operation of computerized
- [00:00:35.749]irrigation systems.
- [00:00:37.520]Today's systems are highly complex and provide the golf course Superintendent
- [00:00:41.883]tremendous flexibility and control over watering practices.
- [00:00:46.040]However, even with all this technology, most top superintendents periodically
- [00:00:50.925]utilize one of the oldest methods of irrigation of grains, hand watering.
- [00:00:57.880]It's common for golfers on the fairway to wait for a maintenance worker to finish
- [00:01:02.016]hand watering the turf before they hit their shots.
- [00:01:05.200]Understandably, they often wonder why the water cannot be
- [00:01:08.134]applied at night when the course is closed.
- [00:01:10.800]In fact, it is very likely the green was watered
- [00:01:13.165]at night.
- [00:01:14.000]In most cases, the water golfers see applied during the
- [00:01:16.967]day by a worker holding a hose is not a replacement for the deeper irrigation
- [00:01:21.100]that takes place during the night, but a supplement for certain areas that
- [00:01:25.074]need additional water.
- [00:01:27.800]To determine exactly where supplemental water is needed,
- [00:01:31.011]groundskeepers often use probes cut from Golf Club shafts to sample the greens.
- [00:01:35.520]Root zone plugs are pulled from various points on the green and examined for
- [00:01:40.205]moisture content.
- [00:01:41.680]This allows the staff to distinguish between dry areas and those areas where
- [00:01:46.063]the turf is simply too hot.
- [00:01:48.720]Although great effort goes into the design of sprinkler systems,
- [00:01:52.255]it is difficult to apply water evenly to odd shaped areas such as greens.
- [00:01:56.640]Sprinkler placement must be adjusted for bunkers and mounding as well as the shape
- [00:02:00.755]of the green.
- [00:02:01.800]The wind also impacts coverage.
- [00:02:06.680]Superintendents recognize that too much water is much more detrimental to healthy
- [00:02:11.221]turf than too little and usually air on the side of dryness.
- [00:02:14.880]It is much easier and wiser to add a little more water the next day with the
- [00:02:19.082]hose than to over water the night before.
- [00:02:21.720]When the maintenance worker is pointing the hose directly downward on to the
- [00:02:25.510]grain, he or she is adding water to the soil to
- [00:02:27.873]supplement overhead irrigation.
- [00:02:30.600]During really hot weather, the hose may be employed for an entirely
- [00:02:33.900]different reason, cooling the turf.
- [00:02:36.040]To accomplish this, the maintenance worker points the hose up
- [00:02:38.877]and sprays a mist across the green.
- [00:02:40.760]This is commonly referred to as syringing.
- [00:02:43.240]By placing a very light coating of moisture on the leaves of the turf,
- [00:02:46.717]the temperature near the green surface can be temporarily lowered.
- [00:02:50.400]Much like the cooling effect of the wind evaporating sweat from a golfer's skin.
- [00:02:54.640]This evaporation of water from the leaf's surface provides at least temporary
- [00:02:58.655]relief from high temperatures.
- [00:03:03.440]The ultimate goal of all these watering techniques is to produce a healthy,
- [00:03:08.130]deeply rooted turf grass plant that is able to withstand the pressures of low
- [00:03:12.944]mowing and heavy use.
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