Hand Watering

As we progress into summer making sound water management decisions becomes increasingly important.  Finding the right balance between golfer’s expectations of firm fast conditions and sustaining healthy turf becomes increasingly difficult.

 

Weather Station


Although the irrigation system at Huntsville Golf Club is over 20 years old, it is still a very good system.  We have over 1,200 individual irrigation heads that are all controlled by a centralized computer.  We also have an on-site weather station which records evapotranspiration and can help to calculate how much to water to apply.  Despite these tools and technology, determining how much to irrigate is as much of an art as it is a science.  Applying too much water will lead to soft playing conditions, increased disease pressure and shortened root systems.  Apply too little and the grass will suffer from drought stress which could lead to turf loss.



 

"Hand watering gives you the ability to deliver water where it is needed.."


Hand watering a green

Modern irrigation heads are designed to apply water uniformly to the turf, unfortunately, the turf does not always dry out uniformly.  This is most evident on greens which are grown on sand for drainage purposes and can dry out very quickly.  As the green dries down certain ridges and high points tend to dry out first.  Although the simplest solution would be to run the irrigation heads, this would lead over watering areas of the green that are not dry.  It is at these times that hand watering becomes a vital maintenance procedure.  Hand watering gives you the ability to deliver water where it is needed while avoiding over irrigating other areas. 


Although no one likes to see maintenance workers hand watering the greens during the day.  Please be patient and understand that the greens staff is out there trying to produce healthy greens that are firm and fast.