You've heard me talk about the challenges of using an irrigation system designed in 1987. It isn't efficient and doesn't allow us to irrigate with precision. Most of the repair parts we need, aren't even made anymore. Regardless, we push forward doing the best we can. Here is an example of how this impacts the golf course.
On the third hole, in order to get adequate water to the hillside, we are forced to over-water the lower portion of the hole. The result is shown above; wilted turf on the hill and saturated soil below. There is no way to avoid this other than installed a good bit of drainage on the low side or, fixing the problem by replacing the irrigation system. This is one example of several at Highlands CC. Most of our members do not like the look of brown turf which is acceptable depending on the expectation of the membership. In our case, there isn't a way to balance this without over watering many areas. We do hand water these areas as much as we can to cut down on overhead irrigation (sprinklers).
On many of the greens, you will notice white dots. This is where the edge of the green should be based on our architectural drawings. #14 is the most severe case of "green creep." This phenomena is unavoidable over time. We are trying to do a better job of staying on top of it so we don't have the issue above. Over a period of years, greensmowers have the tendency to creep in or out on the cleanup pass. It is human error while they mow that pass.