Where Does All Our Irrigation Water Go?

Looking out over the golf course this time of year it might seem strange to see a topic discussing irrigation water usage.  But winter is a great time of year to run some calculations and review our water usage from the previous year.  Water usage in our industry tends to be a topic discussed by many Superintendents as well as our association leaders so we feel it's in our best interest to track where our water goes on the golf course.

Do we have a water crisis?  Based on the amount of snow we have this year most in our state would probably say no. But  what would happen if  local and state leaders began to regulate our industries water usage? This is a question Nick and I have discussed the past few years.  One question we have asked ourselves is what would happen if we were asked by the Minnesota DNR (regulators of our water use) to restrict our usage by, say 10%.  What would we do?  Where would we look at reducing our input?  How would we communicate with our members and what information would we have to back those decisions?  Important questions but difficult to answer if you don't have the data.

Thankfully we keep diligent records of our water usage and the programs we run on a daily basis in season. Each program is listed on a sheet and the time or amount of water applied is recorded.  When each program is run, our Toro Site-Pro irrigation controller automatically calculates how many gallons are used for a particular program.  Nick then calculates the gallons used for each program throughout the season.  We then end up with totals for each area of the golf course, green, tees, fairways, rough, clubhouse lawn and a few other programs we utilize.  Currently we have four years worth of specific data.

Daily log of irrigation cycles and rainfall amounts

Changes in our irrigation practices as well as changes in our sward of turf from predominately poa annua to creeping bentgrass has allowed us to work at adjusting our watering philosophy from nightly light watering cycles to deep and infrequent cycles.  Obviously weather conditions greatly dictate when and how much we water and can greatly impact our consumption from year to year.  But by tracking our water usage on each area of the course we feel we have some valuable information.

Site-Pro Irrigation Programs

Shows that gallons of water used for a specific days usage

This season we will monitor greens moisture on a daily basis using the TDR 300 moisture sensor. By knowing what our daily soil moisture content is and where that level needs to be maintained for healthy turf I fore see a reduction of water usage on our greens. This is because we will only be applying water to reach field capacity when we know we reach our wilt point threshold as opposed to when we think we have reached our threshold.  Additionally since we have 21 greens with 21 different requirements we have now developed 21 separate greens programs.  We will still have the capability of watering all 21 greens on any given night, but we can also add or eliminate water to a green based on its requirement.  Watering all greens when some don't require it, is not only a waste of water, but can create unhealthy conditions for the turf and inconsistent playing conditions for the golfer.

Here's a closer look at our irrigation usage over the past 4 season.

	2007	2008	2009	2010
Greens	841,959	874,874	940,503	598,216
Main PG	8,639	23,997	81,787	74,859
Hedge Green	no program	9,876	43,659	37,197
Chipper Green	no program	21,902	89,582	86,992
Tees	4,264,375	3,477,955	3,809,864	3,130,119
Surrounds	1,313,606	1,105,263	1,008,137	476,744
Fairways	8,150,787	6,854,786	6,848,072	4,899,798
Rough	9,091,439	8,296,344	6,822,187	6,688,950
DR Tee	341,856	308,304	290,304	226,800
DR Fairway	756,648	622,728	648,000	608,256
SG Tee	577,512	342,252	438,480	332,316
Nurseries	93,744	75,600	22,680	41,580
Fescue Bunkers	0	0	255,312	0
Fairway Hotspots	129,600	269,640	232,380	84,924
MSF	145,451	106,184	152,162	89,910
CH Lawn	467,820	405,720	69,000	160,928
Fairway Landing Zones	no program	no program	no program	no program
Total	26,185,443	22,797,433	21,754,118	17,539,599
Rainfall (inches)	22.67	16.11	21.24	25.19