1. Soil Moisture Variability on Golf Course Fairways Across the United States: an Opportunity for Water Conservation with Precision Irrigation

Fairways account for an average of 11.3 irrigated hectares on each of the 15,000+ golf courses in the US. Annual median water use per hectare on fairways is between ~2,800,000 and 14,000,000 liters, depending on the region. Conventional fairway irrigation relies on visual observation of the turfgrass, followed by secondary considerations of short-term weather forecasts, which oftentimes lead to “blanket” applications to the entire area. The concept of precision irrigation is a strategy... C. Straw, C. Bolton, J. Young, R. Hejl, J. Friell, E. Watkins