Written by: Kate Stillwell
2025
GKG has recently updated 30 holes of irrigation to Rainbird Cirrus Pro. By carrying out this work at the end of the season, we have updated 187 decoders to ICM controls. With evaporation transpiration rates able to be monitored we can have an exact knowledge of moisture being lost throughout the day and can replace exact lost moisture, keeping greens consistent during high-pressure periods during the season.
There is an estimated overwatering of between 30% and 50% on all golf courses. If we can begin to understand the impact of over watering we can reduce these figures.
Over watering affects a multitude of areas - greens practice, applications of fertilisers, the cause of fungi and pests, runoff damage in bunkers and newly seeded areas, black layer and lack of oxygen within the turfgrass plant, extra labor required for hand irrigation, and an excess use of a finite resource as well as leaching of fertilisers into the soil and further potentially into waterways.
Here in Iceland at GKG, wind plays a large part in evaporation transpiration within the turf plant. Using our irrigation system to our advantage will be of huge benefit moving forward.
