If you've been in Highlands for the last 3 weeks, you know first hand that we haven't received a drop of rain. In the coming days, all that appears to be changing, thankfully! During this drought, we were not only up against high skies, but there was a stiff breeze most days with low humidity that made turf dry out quick. Most days, at least 3 members of our team were out with hoses, watering hot spots that can pop during times of drought. Our goal is to balance two things. One, keeping the golf course green and two, keeping the golf course playable and not wet. Irrigation systems are designed to be a supplement to natural rainfall and not a replacement for it. At HCC, we lack adequate sprinkler head coverage due to an antiquated system installed in the mid 1980's. You can see by the photos above and below, that the rough on the 12th hole gets dry faster than that of the fairway. The irrigation system allows us to water the center of the fairway but doesn't reach the outer rough. The only way to solve this is to install a multi row system that covers the entire hole. In order to irrigate the rough now, we would have to over-water the fairway and that is something we're not willing to do. Therefore, we are left irrigating the rough manually by way of a hose. The good news is, most of the dry areas will green back up once we start receiving rain and this minor drought will be a thing of the past.
