I'm often asked, "Why do you need an irrigation system in a rain forest" that is often followed by some form of clever laughter, as if that's never been stated before. Well, the answer is: right now we need it! On the golf course, we have a lot of rough the is wilting because it's been dry for the last week. Our turf has no roots because of the 97.25" of rain we've had this year. However, we have no means to water the rough without also soaking the fairways. How would #11 fairway play if I started running irrigation now in order to get enough water to the rough? The fairway is still saturated from the rain. The other option is simply ignore the rough, and let it die? Neither of these options are acceptable, of course. The answer falls somewhere in the middle which is: We will have some rough turn brown but will try to minimize it by having 4 or more staff members dragging hoses all day, in the middle of play. These are 4 people that could be doing something far more productive than hand watering rough. Irrigation is used for more than putting down large amount of water. It's a system used to precisely apply the correct amount of moisture to each playing surface, that differs based on the soil type/consistency, slope, species of turf and other factors, to make it through the day. A good water management system gives a superintendent total control to deliver excellent conditions on a daily basis. At Highlands CC, we have no control to do that. When it gets dry, all we can do is over-irrigate fairways in order to get water to the rough.
