How Often Do Golf Courses Water the Grass on Their Course?

By Ben Jarratt •  Updated: 07/14/23 •  6 min read

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How often should a golf course water the grass on its course? This is an essential question because too much watering can result in poor quality turf, and too little watering could lead to drought. It turns out that many courses have different policies for how they water their greens depending on the weather conditions. For example, if it’s been raining a lot, some courses may only need to water every 2-3 days, but if it has been dry, they will typically want to water 3-4 times a week! That being said, there are always exceptions, so be sure to ask your local golf pro what they do!

Golf Course Watering

Most golf courses do some form of watering daily. This is because golf courses use much water to maintain their greens, tee boxes, and fairways. However, how often they need to do this varies depending on the weather conditions in that area. If it has been raining quite frequently, some courses may only need to water every two or three days, but if it has been dry for too long, they will want to increase that up to four times a week!

What’s more important than how much?

It turns out that while many people think about how frequent these watering sessions are, what can be just as crucial is what time of day you’re doing them at. Golf course managers know that most turf plants (including those used on golf courses) produce the most growth during the cooler times of the day. With this information, they can then determine what time of day is best for watering.

How Are Golf Courses Maintained?

They are maintained by a team of people who take care of the course, including landscapers and groundskeepers.

The landscapers are responsible for designing the layout of the course, how best to integrate it with its surroundings and while keeping within any set budgets. They also make sure that there is diversity in terms of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and flowers so that the golfers can enjoy them during their round!

Groundskeepers meanwhile take care of all maintenance work on-site, including mowing greens, raking bunkers (those deep sand traps), repairing divots made by players’ clubs when they hit shots off-target, as well as general upkeep such as watering holes to keep them from drying out. They also clean up fallen leaves or other debris collected around hazards like water features or large trees.  If you have ever wondered if golf lessons would be of benefit to you, check out our article on are golf lessons worth it?

Irrigation Systems

Golf courses use an irrigation system made up of sprinklers, pipes, valves, and pumps to water the grass.

Golf Course Irrigation Systems: Golf courses use an irrigation system that is made up of sprinklers, pipes, valves, and pumps for watering their turf. The procedure usually includes many different variables to make the turf look its finest year-round. A typical golf course has about 50 miles of irrigation piping.

The sprinklers are spaced out every 20 to 30 feet, and there is typically one at the end of each row.

Nitrogen

To keep the golf course greens green and lush, they fertilize them with chemicals like nitrogen. Nitrogen provides the greens with nutrients and helps them to grow better.

The turf on a golf course is watered by sprinklers spaced out every 20 feet or so, set up in rows that cover the entire length of the green across its width. The distance from one end of a row to another can vary depending on how long it takes for grasses at each spot to dry off before they need water again. Nitrogen-rich fertilizers keep the plants lush and healthy during the growing season when there’s not enough rain, usually once or twice a month through September until October after rainy weather has ended.

Turf on golf courses needs more than just nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation if you want your lawns looking their finest all year round. Other fertilizers used on golf courses are known as “dry” fertilizers and are spread out on the soil’s surface. This is done to promote root growth for a more extended season so that your lawn can use water from rainfall more efficiently and maintain its green color year-round.

Additionally, it’s essential to have different types of grasses planted in various areas around your course if you want a beautiful display all day long; cool-season grasses such as bluegrass or fescue trim down during hot summer months while warm-season ones like Bermuda grow quickly when temperatures rise. Afternoon shade also helps keep greens looking their best by blocking strong sunlight that may overheat turf blades. These practices are well worth implementing into your golf course maintenance routine if you’re interested in lush greens year-round.

Drainage Systems

Most golf courses also have a drainage system for heavy rainstorms. This allows for their course to not flood as floods can put a damper on beautiful greens!

Grasses

Grasses are planted in various areas around your course if you want a beautiful display all day long; cool-season grasses such as bluegrass or fescue trim down during hot summer months, while warm-season ones like Bermuda grow quickly when temperatures rise. Afternoon shade also helps keep greens looking their best by blocking strong sunlight that may overheat turf blades. These practices are well worth implementing into your golf course maintenance routine if you’re interested in lush greens year-round.

Brown Patches and Dry Spots

Suppose you see brown patches or dry spots on your golf course, more than likely, they aren’t watering enough. This is often the case if you notice a particular section of turf browning or drying out even when it has been watered. The problem here stems from inconsistent watering that either didn’t happen long enough to saturate soil down deep or happened for too short of time, so water ran off and left dry topsoil behind.