Geoff Smith, course manager at Abridge Golf & Country Club in Romford, an Open qualifying venue, has praised the POGO Pro soil and turf management meter, saying, "it provides an unprecedented level of information into my greens’ moisture and salinity levels, as well as canopy temperature, for example, to enable me to make more informed and much better decisions about irrigation”.

Geoff Smith

Geoff’s investment in POGO Pro was spurred by the installation of a new irrigation system and reservoir, costing in excess of £500,000, of which the most recent stage was completed earlier this year at the long-established (since 1962) 18-hole Championship course that occupies 240 acres in Essex. “I could immediately see the benefits of POGO Pro and I knew it would give me an accurate insight into the current state of the surfaces, as well as enable me to build a true history of exactly what’s going on beneath in the top layer.”

In addition to measuring the most influential variables governing turf performance - moisture, salinity, canopy temperature , nutrition and turf stress/disease, for example - the unit also connects remotely to any Apple or android device and its integrated GPS features include precise location, geospatial condition analysis, cup placements, sprinkler positioning and patterns, area measurement and custom mapping.

Geoff continues, “We have push-up greens on solid clay and watering was very random before the new fully computerised irrigation system with pop-up sprinklers to all greens, tees, approaches, surrounds and 12/14 fairways. We often simply turned on the water for a few minutes at a time and almost guessed that what we doing was enough, not using a moisture meter. Looking back on last year’s very hot spell, I probably over-watered (and I’m guessing I was not the only one!) but now, with POGO Pro, I’m making much more informed decisions on greens where I maintain moisture levels of 26/30%, and on other areas I have also started recording moisture levels and adjusting irrigation accordingly. Today, that sometimes means certain greens need only hand watering, and that will undoubtedly save us money and means far better and more responsible water usage.”

The use of POGO Pro occupies one of Geoff’s eight-man team for two-three hours at a time, he says, “but we will be including the fairways and approaches as we go forwards”.

That investment in time will, however, be well worth it, he says. "Once the information taken by the POGO Pro is updated to my computer, I can create maps of dry and wet areas. I can create visuals in either map form or graphs showing the history of each green (or all greens) and see definite patterns which means that between my deputy and myself we will be making make much more informed decisions on watering and feeding programmes.”