There are a
couple reasons for which you may see maintenance personnel watering greens by
hand during your round of golf.
1)
Soil moisture - Although great effort goes into the
design of automated irrigation systems, even the most sophisticated systems
cannot apply water evenly to all areas of the green, nor does every area of the
green require the same amount of water. Putting greens are oddly shaped and
often constructed with surface contours. Greenside bunkers may interfere with
placement of irrigation heads around greens and wind can also adversely impact
irrigation coverage uniformity. In short, no automatic irrigation system can account
for all of these irregularities and challenges. Hand watering is the best way to
accurately supplement overhead irrigation to areas in need of more water during
the day without overwatering areas that don’t. All turf managers recognize that
too much water is far more detrimental to turf health than too little so it
makes sense to error on the side of dryness. It is much wiser to add a little
more water the next day with the hose than to overwater the night before.
2)
Syringing – Syringing is the application
of very small amounts of water to the turf. The goal is to wet the leaf surface
and not the soil. It may fulfill several objectives, such as removing dew or
frost, but primarily syringing is performed to prevent or correct a leaf water
deficit, i.e., wilt, or cool the turf canopy via evaporation (compare to the
cooling effect when sweat evaporates from a golfer’s skin). During severe heat
stress or periods of rapid water loss (usually low relative humidity and windy
conditions), syringing may be necessary multiple times throughout the day.
So when you
see manual watering, how do you know for which purpose it is being performed? If
the maintenance worker is pointing the hose downward toward the green, then
water is being added to the soil as a supplement to the overhead irrigation
system. For syringing, the hose will be pointed slightly upward so that a light
amount of water will accumulate on the turf foliage only. In either case,
should you encounter staff manually watering greens during your round of golf,
it is best to wait patiently for them to finish. After all, turf survival likely
depends on it.