Why Water in the Daytime?

Published January 4, 2004

Often many golfers ask why do we have the sprinklers running during the day? Can't you run the water at night?

Under optimum soil and turf conditions, deep infrequent watering cycles would be the best way to water the turf and this certainly could happen at night. But we are not blessed with such conditions. The soils at Lake View are primarily clay based and the turf is mostly comprised of Annual Bluegrass which is a very shallow rooted grass. The combination of these two things make it impractical to water deep and infrequently. The performance of the irrigation system also dictates our watering practices. Our irrigation system is very inefficient and does not apply water evenly across the playing surfaces. As a result the center of the fairways receive more water than the edges of the fairways. To keep the playing surfaces more consistent we must hand water the dry areas along the edges of the fairways and the dry areas on the greens and tees. If we were to rely solely on the sprinklers, the playing surfaces would be very inconsistent, i.e. wet areas in the centers and very dry on the edges. We do not have enough labor to hand water all of theses areas so syringing is implemented to carry the turf through the day.

Syringing: Light sprinkling of water on turf usually done during the hottest part of the day to prevent wilting.

During the course of the day, the sun evaporates tremendous amounts of water from the soil and plant tissue. Evaporation through plant tissue is called evapotransporation. During the hottest days of the year the evapotranspiration rate often exceeds the plants ability to draw water in from the soil. The result of this water deficit is wilt. Often times during clear sunny days you can see the turf turning shades of blue and gray. These are signs that the turfgrass plants are in need of water and if water is not applied at that time the grass will die. This is most important as Annual Bluegrass is a very shallow rooted winter annual and if it dies it will not recover until new seeds germinate in the fall. To reduce the stress from this water deficit syringing is implemented. Syringing is not actually replacing the water in the soil but instead it reduces the wilting cycle by cooling off the turf and temporarily stopping wilt until rainfall or hand watering can be initiated.

Unfortunately, watering or syringing during the day is a necessary part of managing the golf course. To avoid coming in contact with a sprinkler during your round of golf you should note the sequence in which they turn on. Fairway sprinklers automatically sequence from the green toward the tee on a frequency of every 4 minutes. If you're standing close to the next sprinkler in the sequence it would be prudent to proceed with caution to avoid getting wet. It is also important to know that the sprinklers rotate in a clockwise fashion. To minimize contact with golfers the greens and tees are syringed manually.

Turf Care Blog | Turf Care Archive | Next »