The Driving Forces and Barriers of Golf Course Superintendents’ Adoption of Precision Irrigation Technology

With the water scarcity crisis, how to use water more efficiently has become an issue that needs to be addressed. The US golf industry, which is known for its high irrigation water consumption, is seeking water-saving strategies. One possible solution is the adoption of precision irrigation technology. The technology is often regarded as an effective water-saving strategy in agricultural production, but the technology’s adoption rate in US golf courses remains low. This paper aims to identify the driving forces and barriers to adoption of precision irrigation technologies among US golf course superintendents, as well as strategies to promote the adoption. Over one hundred golf course superintendents completed questions about precision irrigation technology adoption, golf course operation and demographics in our online survey. The results show the three main driving forces of precision irrigation technology adoption are reducing water use, increasing playability, and better turfgrass aesthetics, and the three main barriers are high initial adoption cost, approval by higher level administrators needed, and lack of information about the effectiveness of the technology. The main information sources used by golf course superintendents are industry association and peer referral. The results have important implications on how to improve the adoption rate of the precision irrigation technology on golf courses.