“We have actually cut in half the amount of water we were using,” he said. “To me, it sort of shows that the sky is the limit with this technology.”
Wireless sensors were little more than a rumor in those days, but Shaffer trusted Latshaw, followed the advice and installed a product called RZ Wireless before the championship. The technology helped him enjoy four years of successful water conservation. Although doubtful he could improve on what he had, Shaffer decided last month to upgrade his system with a promise of even greater savings.
“I am probably known as one of the best waterers,” Shaffer, the club’s director of golf operations, said in a recent interview. “And I thought, man, I don’t know why I’m getting these sensors because I know I’m dry.”
He added: “Well, what I thought was dry isn’t even my baseline. These sensors are just so much more sensitive, so much better, so much more complete. I am now hooked. I’m a sensor addict.”
This is a green addiction with the potential to spread, with more than 20 states affected by some form of drought and water restrictions a daily reality in cities across the nation.
At least three companies are competing in the market for subterranean wireless sensors, which monitor moisture, temperature and salinity in the soil and feed the data to a software network accessed remotely on a laptop, a handheld device or a desktop computer. The system could be used far beyond the golf course — on other athletic fields, in agriculture, in both home and commercial landscaping, and in parks.
Early adopters say they will cut an average of 10 percent of their typical water use, amounting to millions of gallons of water each year. At that rate, the system would pay for itself within the first year, depending on the volume of water a course uses.
“We were a very efficient operation to start with,” said Shawn Emerson, the superintendent at Desert Mountain Golf Club, a complex of six courses with 500 acres of turf in the desert Southwest. “With these sensors, we only water when the soil tells us it needs to be watered.”
He said the club would save a total of more than 100 million gallons of effluent water, or an average of between 18 million and 20 million gallons per course for the year. That would mean roughly $130,000 in savings based on current prices.
Advanced Sensor’s competitors include the industry giant Toro, of Bloomington, Minn.; and Environmental Sensors, Inc., based in Victoria, British Columbia. Each has introduced wireless systems designed for golf courses within the past four months.
The competition has, predictably, spawned litigation. Advanced Sensor filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Toro in January 2008. The case, which involves the movement of a former Advanced Sensor wireless system designer to Toro, is scheduled for trial July 30 in federal court in Philadelphia, barring a settlement.
“The reality is that that the water situation itself is very significant,” Norley said. “There is usage legislation in a number of states, and when it comes to mandates, the golf world will be the lowest-hanging fruit of all the irrigation applications. If decisions are to be based on who gets water, crops for food or someone’s green, green, green fairways, it’s pretty obvious who will get the water.”
Golf accounts for 0.5 percent of annual water usage in the United States, according to a study released this year by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Golf courses are all but weaned from municipal fresh-water systems, with 86 percent now using some other source, liked recycled effluent water, surface water or water treated by reverse osmosis. Significantly, 70 percent of superintendents surveyed said they were keeping their turf drier.
But fewer than 100 of the estimated 15,700 golf courses in the United States have sensors installed. The introduction of relatively cheap and highly accurate systems could change that.
For slightly more than $11,000, a golf course could install an UgMo subsurface system that would include 18 wireless sensors, 3 routers and gateways, software and help from an agronomy support staff.
In the Florida Keys, the Card Sound Golf Club installed wireless sensors in April. The club uses recycled water from reverse osmosis to irrigate the grounds. It has a high salt content, meaning that the club superintendent, Sean Anderson, must regularly have his greens flushed with fresh water.
Before the installation, Anderson said, the job required 150,000 gallons, took an hour and had to be done every two weeks.
“We have actually cut in half the amount of water we were using,” he said. “To me, it sort of shows that the sky is the limit with this technology.”
