Water conservation & usage during the recent extremely hot dry weather.
In common with most inland courses in the U.K. the predominant grass at RPGC is Annual Meadow Grass (Poa Annua) which is a cool season grass which thrives in mild to cold conditions. Poa Annua is a shallow rooted grass which grows and thrives at air temperatures between 15C to 24C.
Once air temperatures consistently reach above 27C the Poa Annua stops thriving and begins to face heat stress.
Some days last week reached 32C in the shade which means that at the hottest part of the day the grass was exposed to temperatures in excess of 45C in the full sun.
In 2017 we installed a highly sophisticated irrigation system which covered not only greens and tees but aprons, surrounds and walk off areas. This allows us to use the supply of water very efficiently as every sprinkler head is electronically controlled to supply the correct amount of irrigation to the area covered.
The system can be set in advance to reflect the prevailing weather conditions.
For the last couple of weeks as well as irrigating the course through the night to a pre-determined program of 3mm for the greens, 2mm for tees every night and 1mm each for approaches and surrounds on alternating nights we have been syringing areas during the day which the green staff have determined are in need of extra water.
As an extra safeguard we have raised the cut of all areas, except the rough, by about 10%, e.g. Fairways – 18mm, Tees and aprons – 12mm, surrounds – 22mm. The greens are currently at 3mm but to minimise the stress on the sward we are alternating between cutting and rolling.
As last year, since April, we have been unable to abstract water from the Rothley Brook and have had to rely on mains water for all our irrigation needs. To safeguard future water supplies, the Board are prioritising the creation of a water storage reservoir.
We will be reporting back to the members at each stage of the process and details of progress so far can be found on the members’ area of the
club website.
