Golf Courses 'Sense' Water Savings

Overall, irrigated turf for recreational uses in the United States--including some 15,700 golf courses--demands approximately 2.7 billion gallons of water per day. An average 18-hole golf course in Arizona requires an average of about 500,000 gallons of water per day. Recently, golf courses across the country have discovered that the can save significant amounts of water--and money--by installing moisture sensing devices that tell them when and when not to water their turf.

Over the years, golf courses in the United States have become far more efficient with their water use. Furthermore, about 86% of all golf courses in this country are disconnected from municipal water systems, using other sources such as recycled effluent water, surface water or water treated by reverse osmosis. Many of these alternative water supplies require more energy than a typical surface water source and reducing reliance on these systems can save energy.

Despite their efforts, golf courses alone account for 0.5% of water usage and can still significantly reduce their water demands by installing moisture sensors. These computer-based systems provides groundskeepers with robust, real-time data and allows them to apply just the right amount of water--no more, no less---to their greens.

According to the New York Times article called On Golf Courses, Sensors Help Save Water:

Early adopters [of the moisture sensing technology] say they will cut an average of 10 percent of their typical water use, amounting to millions of gallons of water each year. At that rate, the system would pay for itself within the first year, depending on the volume of water a course uses.

“We were a very efficient operation to start with,” said Shawn Emerson, the superintendent at Desert Mountain Golf Club, a complex of six courses with 500 acres of turf in the desert Southwest. “With these sensors, we only water when the soil tells us it needs to be watered.”

He said the club would save a total of more than 100 million gallons of effluent water, or an average of between 18 million and 20 million gallons per course for the year. That would mean roughly $130,000 in savings based on current prices.

These savings are huge and the payback on installing a moisture sensing system is often less than a year. For just slightly over $11,000, one company will install a system on an 18-hole golf course that includes 18 wireless sensors, 3 routers and gateways, software and help from an agronomy support staff.

When you consider that less than 100 of the nearly 16,000 golf courses in the United States have these systems installed, there is potential for huge water savings though these types of systems.

To finish with another example from the Time's article:

In the Florida Keys, the Card Sound Golf Club installed wireless sensors in April. The club uses recycled water from reverse osmosis to irrigate the grounds. It has a high salt content, meaning that the club superintendent, Sean Anderson, must regularly have his greens flushed with fresh water.

Before the installation, Anderson said, the job required 150,000 gallons, took an hour and had to be done every two weeks.

“We have actually cut in half the amount of water we were using,” he said. “To me, it sort of shows that the sky is the limit with this technology.”

For more information, read On Golf Courses, Sensors Help Save Water.

Nod to Matt Polsky for finding this article.