TURF MAINTENANCE: Tourney syringing

When it comes to a professional tournament, superintendents are often pressured to keep the greens dry and firm. This is something Scott Ebers, superintendent at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, is familiar with. Each May, his course hosts the PGA Tour’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.

The first thing he observes about syringing is that there is no universally held definition of what it is.
“Some people might consider syringing a very fast, up in the air misting of the green in 15 seconds,” he says. “Other people would consider the MobileMisting a light syringe and then others think a couple minutes of watering the entire green – starting on one side and going across the entire green is syringing.”

Ebers is not a big fan of syringing in the theoretical sense of cooling the plant by putting water on the top.

“I don’t think that is very successful,” he says. “I am a huge fan of fans. I think they cool the canopy far better than syringing. What my guys do in the summer is syringing – misting the top. They water dry spots. They get on there and look for wilt. If it’s dry, they water deeply; they puddle it up on that spot and drive the water into the root system. They will put the nozzle down. I don’t ever put the nozzle up and give it a really good shot of water. I just hit spots to get water where it needs it.”

During the PGA event, Ebers says he has guys who jump in with hoses down and water spots. This year will be his sixth tournament.

“Three years we have gone in at certain times and hit spots in play during the tournament,” he says. “We also try to get the greens to perk so well that when we go in there it’s not a wet surface when the players get to it.”

Tim Moraghan, principal at Aspire Golf Consulting and former director of championship agronomy for the USGA, says when he was a superintendent, syringing was done to close the cells on the plant to keep the evapotranspiration to a minimum at high temperatures. Moraghan believes hand watering is a lost art.

“Today, you have moisture sensors and hand-held digital units that give you an idea of moisture content in the soil, so it’s a little easier, but it still takes time to learn how to do the process,” he explains.

All the years Moraghan and his crew syringed greens during U.S. Open play, he says it was mainly due to stress because of heat more than anything else.

“There was not enough water put down to affect the firmness of the greens or to soften it up,” he says. “I remember my first U.S. Open in 1987. The 18th green at The Olympic Club had a 7.5 percent slope, back to front, and the balls were running off the front. We syringed between groups just to keep the grass a little puffier and keep that speed down a little bit – that was a rare occasion, though. At Shinnecock in 2004, syringing was done strictly because of the wind because it was so hot and dry.”

When to syringe during a big event comes down to a judgement call based on experience, says Moraghan.

“You need sufficient people to do the work,” he explains. “One event, we had six groups of two – 12 syringers out there doing one or two greens apiece all afternoon, so the competition stayed the same for everybody. You need a hose man and somebody putting the hose into the snap valve. You need to coordinate with rules officials and get a feel of when to jump in or out between groups. Every green is different, every golf course is different, and you try not to get into the way. You could write a book on how to do it correctly.” GCI