Golf Tees Irrigation

A drier leaf is more resilient to wear, so avoid overwatering a tee because a leaf well supplied with water will be more easily worn away by golfers. Trying to produce a well-developed, deep, root system will require relatively low irrigation inputs, as this will also encourage grass roots to explore into the rootzone in search of available moisture to extract.

A higher height of cut, when compared with a green, will produce less stress on the sward and this in turn will enable it to better resist drier conditions. The actual amount and frequency of irrigation will depend on the sward composition and existing root depth in particular with a fescue – bent sward being more adaptable to prolonged dry conditions than a perennial ryegrass sward.

Encouraging seed germination and establishment will be enhanced with localised irrigation, so where overseeding and especially divoting has taken place then focus on these seeded and juvenile seedling areas rather than established areas which have already (ideally) developed a good root system.

The occasional use of sprinklers would therefore be supplemented by more regular hand watering of the seeded areas. A compromise may be needed in that it might be impractical to hand water on a regular basis, especially at certain times of the year when workload is already excessive.

More frequent, but very light applications of water from sprinklers would therefore replace hand watering, with the continued aim of this to still just provide moisture to the seed and surface area where juvenile roots are growing so as not to dry them out due to their limited ability to explore much of the rootzone.