Every Drop Counts

摘要

The summer of 2006 has undoubtedly had shades of thirty years ago, 1976, with high temperatures, clear blue cloudless skies and constant gentle breezes. As I have little memory of those halcyon days long gone by' my father points out to me that automatic irrigation then was in its infancy, far less of a science. Water bowsers, known locally as 'gully wagons' were hired from the highways department to drench golf greens, automatic irrigation consisted of movable rotary sprinklers attached to a skid, which were constantly either moved or turned off by each successive passing four ball. Only the wealthiest and most prestigious clubs had fully automated pop-up systems, and although the control systems were state of the art then, they would be rudimentary now. I am reminded of a recent television programme on the Apollo 13 mission, when all the technology available then could now be handled by a simple modern laptop.