Demonstrating Water Savings on Fairways Through Precision Irrigation
By: Ryan Schwab (University of Minnesota), Chase Straw (Texas A&M University), Josh Friell (The Toro Company), Eric Watkins (University of Minnesota) There are many irrigation scheduling methods used on golf courses today, especially on fairways. Many superintendents have a pretty good idea of the soil moisture behavior of their fairways and implement some form of precision irrigation without much thought. Individual heads can have run times adjusted. A fairway may dry up quicker than others and receive more frequent “blanket” applications of water than others. Decisions could also be influenced by adopting technologies such as portable soil moisture sensors (SMS) or on-site weather station data. Whether between fairways or areas within a single fairway, soil moisture variability is inevitable, and the ability to capture this at a fine resolution can lead to an improved precision irrigation management plan. 42
Our group developed a free protocol for golf course soil moisture mapping in 2019 (https:// license.umn.edu/product/protocol-for-golf-course-soil-moisturemapping). This step-by-step protocol explains how to collect and map soil moisture of fairways. Most importantly, it teaches how to implement the information gathered to support irrigation decisions. Within each fairway, a superintendent can create and classify multiple irrigation management zones that correspond to the soil moisture variability and closest irrigation head. For example, all areas that tend to have a high water-holding capacity will be grouped together as a “wet” zone, regardless of their location on the fairway (Figure 1). By avoiding “blanket” applications and watering more site-spe-
