Golf courses could save millions of litres of water and up to 30 per cent in water costs each year with the release of a series of water saving products by GolfLinx.

The technologically advanced water management products were launched today at the Australian Turfgrass Conference and Trade Exhibition in Brisbane. They together provide an integrated turf water management solution.

GolfLinx Chief Executive, Nigel Hennessy, said the products would allow golf course superintendents to monitor soil moisture content and weather conditions, then use this information to better plan course watering.  The products were also suitable for public parks, sporting grounds and racecourses.

The advantages of the GolfLinx solution include water savings, reduced pumping costs, stronger root growth, less mowing time, better turf performance more effective irrigation and cost savings.

"Golf courses traditionally use a lot of water.  In fact, over-watering leads to shorter roots which results in bare patches in dry periods, and can wash away nutrients and contaminate the natural water supply.  Shorter roots also increase the likelihood of fairway divots," Mr Hennessy said.

"It is estimated an 18 hole golf course will consume as much as the equivalent of 7 Olympic size swimming pools of water every week."

Mr Hennessy said GolfLinx's turf products would create significant savings on water usage of approximately 2 Olympic swimming pools per week (a 30% saving). In addition it will save energy usage, maintenance costs, and increase turf quality and disease resistance.

"The suite of turf products offers an all-in-one solution allowing superintendents to monitor soil moisture content and weather conditions, then use the latest software to work out how much water is required at all points of the golf course.  It takes the guesswork out of course watering," Mr Hennessy said.

GolfLinx has formed an Advisory Board, which includes former Australian Open champion and leading golf course designer Bruce Devlin to promote its products, particularly in the US market.

The 1960 Australian Open champion is an eight-time winner on the US PGA Tour, and he was a leading golf commentator with both NBC and ESPN networks in the US.

Bruce now resides in the US and devotes most of his time to golf course design.

He has been involved in the construction of more than 150 golf courses around the world, many of which have hosted numerous professional tournaments including US PGA Tour and Nike Tour events.

Bruce says a key part of golf course design is the placement and management of watering systems.  He says there is huge potential in the US market for the soil moisture sensor products to be incorporated into both new and existing courses.

"Having been involved in building over 150 golf courses around the world, I've become aware of the first question to ask a client: ‘Where is your water coming from'," Bruce says.

"Water is becoming more of an issue in building golf courses, with some developers being denied a permit to build because they cannot supply sufficient water for the golf course.

"This has led to the great interest I have in being involved with GolfLinx, because now everyone is asking the question: ‘How can we save water and still grow turfgrass?'

"I believe that GolfLinx will be the vehicle whereby golf course superintendents can save water and grow better turfgrass, at a cost-to-benefit ratio that makes sense."

GolfLinx is a trading arm of Agrilink Holdings Pty Ltd, a leader in innovative in water management solutions.  Its products have been modelled on parent company Agrilink's successful agricultural products that have already seen a 30 per cent reduction in water usage and 50 per cent lift in yields in Australia's cotton industry, and considerable savings for the wine industry.

The new products launched today are:

• AquaSense Turf - a multi depth soil moisture probe which has been specifically designed to monitor moisture in turf;
  
• MetSpy - a weather monitoring station using state-of-the-art wireless technology;
  
• TerraCom 10 Series - allows reliable and cost effective wireless data streaming between the AquaSense Turf and MetSpy products and the TurfWISE computer software package;
  
• TurfWISE - a turf data analysis software package that integrates the data from the various sensors in order to enable the supervisor to manage his golf course water requirements more effectively.

 Additional information can be found at http://www.golflinx.net/.