Fairway Watering

[rulefan]

Water isn't an endless comodity .

So what makes it disappear? Where does it go?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

So what makes it disappear? Where does it go?

Heat. It means it can hold more in the atmosphere.

 

[D-S]

The extraction of water will effect somewhere and many, thats just the way it is.

You are right the extraction of the water from the underground river that runs into the Severn estuary will for a brief moment affect the level of the Atlantic Ocean which is gradually, over time, increasing in height due to climate change. However the water will either evaporate and fall again as rain or find it’s way down to its source so, all in all, not a massive issue in global climate terms.

 

[Oddsocks]

Is it right to water fairways?
Greens and tees I can accept, but with only so much water I feel it's an act that only serves to darken golf's image.

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This.

Greens are needed and tees if you feel the need, but to me fairways recover so much quicker then greens I don’t se it as a viable use for water.

 

[hovis]

We don't live in Africa. Water in this country is a unlimited commodity for 99.9% of the year. I understand that watering the fairways in this particular moment in time is a little irresponsible considering a few counties are issuing hose pipe bans but if you're willing to pay for it then use it as you feel fit.

I've Just returned from a water rescue course at lake Bala. They're realising abserd amounts of water at the moment for water sports down stream. I think we're good ?

 

[theoneandonly]

A lot of clubs are still using mains drinking water on their greens ?
That really could be problem , especially in the drier parts of the country. They'll be the first to be banned of it gets really tough.

 

[RRidges]

...
Greens are needed and tees if you feel the need, but to me fairways recover so much quicker then greens I don’t se it as a viable use for water.

There's no doubt it's a 'viable' use for water.
Whether it's a 'responsible' use for water currently is a different question - it seems that it's not, at least for fairways. and maybe not for tees either.

 

[mikejohnchapman]

I've been lucky enough to play a number of top courses in the last 6 weeks and without exception they have been running fast and bouncy with the majority of the fairways and rough burnt-out. In many cases when I asked they told me they had stopped watering fairways due to water restrictions or potential shortfalls as they had to save water for greens as they feared there would be no substantial rain until October.

Does this matter? Well the golf is different as are the shots you need to play but it isn't really a problem. Mentally I think I am used to equating top courses with being very green with juicy rough but just because a course is burnt-out it doesn't make it a bad course.

It's been fun watching some of our younger golfers confused about having to play bump and run shots or heaven forbid, putting from off the green as reaching for a 60 degree wedge from 25 yards doesn't work anymore.

If we believe what we read then summers like this are going to be more common in future so I'm sure our course designers and green staff are going to have to come up with strategies to enable courses to survive using a lot less water by using different grasses and focussing what resources we have to keep courses open without doing too much damage to prevent recovery.

Oh and think about getting rid of some of those bunkers in front of the green!

 

[Newnsy]

We are getting fairway irrigation installed this coming winter. It was a very hot topic at the club and quite divisive personally I am all for it as our head greenkeeper wants it, and I trust that he knows much better than me.

He said its not about having lush green fairways its more about
• Targeted, efficient watering including re-seeding and over-seeding where
required
• Better playing surfaces, better grass species, more drought tolerant
• More accurate application of Acelepryn to combat leatherjackets
• More time available for greenkeeping staff to produce better playing
surfaces
• More precise application of wetting agents will lead to less wastage

We are also drilling a bore hole as well as building a reservoir his opinion is that we will actually use less water as he can water fairways a night with less water evaporation meaning he doesn't need to water as much.

 

[Crow]

As I said in the thread about preferring manicure or design, I'm not a fan of overly manicured courses and lush green fairways all year round are a part of that.

British courses were always burnt out in summer if there was little rain for a prolonged period yet they recovered quickly, we've been getting too used to seeing American courses on the telly and so think this is how they should be.

 

[Jason.H]

Our greens get watered and that’s it. Love the challenge of different condition. Soft and lush or hard with bare lies.

 

[sunshine]

As I said in the thread about preferring manicure or design, I'm not a fan of overly manicured courses and lush green fairways all year round are a part of that.

British courses were always burnt out in summer if there was little rain for a prolonged period yet they recovered quickly, we've been getting too used to seeing American courses on the telly and so think this is how they should be.

I think it depends on the turf and course design. Sandy links or heathland no problem. Clay based parkland and the fairways start to crack in a dry spell which causes long term damage.

Some hilly parkland holes become unplayable in the current conditions, the ball rolls off the fairways and it becomes impossible to hold the greens.

 

[Mandofred]

I spit once today....that'l help. Oh jeez....that just opened another can of worms......

 

[D-S]

Water isn't an endless comodity and there will be courses that go due to lack of water.

Aah, the good old days!

 

[IanM]

Ah,

August...we'll all die due to lack of rain

January...we'll all drown in the floods

They called that seasonal variation when I was a kid! A "safe space" was what the architect had to accommodate when building a new branch of the bank! (blimey, they've all gone too! )

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We have fairway and tee watering (as well as greens) and we have a well and extraction licence. But we are running close to having to reduce our watering as we near our extraction limit and we must keep some extraction capacity for a dry September/October.

Well we survived a dry autumn…no issue with water supply at the moment…can hardly credit where we were water-wise not 5months ago.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The interesting part, are the people that need to capture the water to prevent droughts capturing enough now? Are more reservoirs being built in areas where there is excess rainfall? If we have excess at one point in the year and not enough at another time, surely we can improve matching up of these two issues.

 

[Mandofred]

Ifffff the predictions work out to be true...then summers will be warmer and dryer.....the need to at least water enough to keep the grass from dying off so badly it takes a year or more to grow back decently will be a real concern.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Ifffff the predictions work out to be true...then summers will be warmer and dryer.....the need to at least water enough to keep the grass from dying off so badly it takes a year or more to grow back decently will be a real concern.

Noticed when playing H4H at Hayling GC this year that they were having to replant larges swathes of fairway - I assume due to the drought.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

The interesting part, are the people that need to capture the water to prevent droughts capturing enough now? Are more reservoirs being built in areas where there is excess rainfall? If we have excess at one point in the year and not enough at another time, surely we can improve matching up of these two issues.

Our course has a large reservoir which ran dry for the first time this summer.
We’ve installed a very expensive borehole and are looking at doubling the size of the reservoir soon.

We should be doing it on a national scale, but of course no one wants a reservoir building near them. We should also be building desalination plants.