The Masters tournament is one of golf’s truest signs of spring. The iconic azaleas blooming and birds singing on the broadcast give golfers a lift after a long winter. Sharp-eyed viewers may have also noticed broadcasters this year commenting on how much water was being applied to the course, particularly on greens, and how it was affecting the famously firm and fast playing conditions.
Many are tempted to look at Augusta National or any high level sports turfgrass area and think: my lawn should look like that. However, nearly nothing about how a golf course is managed translates to a home lawn, and chasing those conditions can do real damage, especially when it comes to irrigation.
Putting greens are constructed on a highly engineered drainage system: roughly 12 inches of a predominantly sand mix sitting over 4 inches of pea gravel with drainage pipes underneath. Water moves through this profile quickly by design. Modern sports fields are built the same way with the goal of rapid drainage in mind. This, along with plant genetics, highly specialized equipment and intense maintenance practices allow for lower mowing heights that enable effective play and smooth ball roll.
Conversely, most home lawns, particularly here in Indiana, are exactly the opposite. During construction, topsoil is typically stripped off, leaving dense, compacted clay subsoil behind. Clay particles are fine and tightly packed, leaving little room for water to move through. The result is a lawn soil with little pore space that saturates quickly and holds on to water tightly. Air is pushed out of this system. Lawn soils remain wetter for longer and are more prone to compaction.
Spring irrigation can have a long-term negative impact
Spring is the most critical window for root development, and a strong root system is the best defense your lawn has against the heat and drought of summer. Recent springs like this one have brought heavier, more frequent rain events. In 2026, much of Indiana had 3+ inches of rain above average for March, northern areas were 3-5 inches above normal in April, and to start May much of southern Indiana is getting hit hard with rainfall. Plants don’t send roots deeper in the rootzone because they are in search of water, roots grower deeper and more robust when they have air to respire.
The advice here is simple. This spring resist the urge to water between rain events, even if your grass looks slightly stressed. Let the soil dry out. Let air back into the soil. Let the roots respire and breathe to encourage a deeper, more robust root community. A lawn that heads into summer with deep roots and well-aerated soil will be more resilient than one kept constantly wet with a shallow root system.
In closing, many (including some in my own family) have caused the demise of cherished ornamental potted plants by overwatering and “killing them with kindness”. A high level sports playing surface is planted in a pot with many, many more holes in it than your lawn, and shouldn’t serve as a model for managing your yard. The misplaced kindness of spring irrigation can restrict your lawn’s ability to last through the marathon of summer, and mistakes made flipping the irrigation switch too often or too early this spring can have detrimental effects that last long into the future.
