Emerging Technologies for Golf Course Maintenance

I am eager for the day that autonomous mowers can develop to mow bunker faces, edge cart paths, and other labor-intensive and undesirable jobs.

Drones: Many golf course superintendents have been using drones for several years for taking photos and documenting changes. Several companies are now offering the service of daily course flyovers with different lenses that can provide data and maps of soil moisture and NDVI which shows turf stress prior to visible symptoms. These maps can provide an early warning of disease, drought stress, or nutrient deficiencies.

Soil Moisture Sensors: Managing soil moisture is one of the most important aspects of golf course maintenance for both turf health and playability. You may have seen the handheld probes that Superintendents use to monitor soil moisture which have been a useful tool for some time. These probes have become more robust by adding different data that can be measured, and by using GPS and cloud based software to create soil moisture maps to help target irrigation. Recently, manufacturers started introducing soil moisture sensors that can record data and create maps from above ground. There is a new sensor that can mount on the back of various mowers and take thousands of data points while doing routine mowing and populate the data into a map of the course. Similar technology can also be used on drones, and there are now companies that will fly over your entire course and create a soil moisture map daily to assist with precision irrigation.

for mapping, measuring, and locating any of the underground infrastructure that is so important to a successful golf course. The exciting next step for GPS sprayers will come as these sprayers can integrate with maps created using drones with specialized lenses that can spot disease, weeds, and nutrient deficiencies and help create a precision application to reduce chemical usage.

Data Collection: Like so many other industries, data collection in turf management continues to expand. The USGA is now promoting a GS3 “smart ball” that is essentially a golf ball shaped computer that can measure greens speed, smoothness, trueness, and firmness at the same time by dropping it and rolling it around. Soil moisture meters have improved as well, now measuring more data including salt content and temperature and saving this data for future comparisons.

New advancements are also coming in the form of new and improved grass varieties, plant protectants with lower use rates that are better for the environment, new technology for cleaning drain lines and expanding the life span of greens, and advancements in bunker liners to prevent wash outs and contamination of bunker sand among many more.

GPS: GPS sprayers have been around for a decade, but the technology continues to improve and become more affordable. Accuracy is reliable and repeatable, the cost savings from reduced overspray are significant. GPS is also being used in many applications

It will be interesting to see how these new advancements will be adopted. I expect they will become more powerful and useful as they become more integrated. Soon we could have advanced tools and sensors scouting for data which will then utilized by GPS sprayers and smart irrigation systems to deliver precision irrigation, fertilization, and pest control. This may seem overcomplicated, and it probably is. Success in our field like most will always be a function of hard work, good decision making, and great leadership. However, as expectations continue to rise for course conditions at a time when fewer people are choosing this as a career path and prices are high, we will need to utilize any tools available to meet those expectations