I couldn’t believe my eyes!

As a native Californian, I’m sensitive to water use and I’m drawn to extravagant displays of water. Waterfalls attract me, rivers and even creeks capture my attention. (And you know I love the sea.)

So as you might expect, seeing large fountains of water being sprayed onto an athletic field in midday caused me to watch in admiration as these powerful jets rocketed vast quantities of water onto the field.

But wait a second… That turf is remarkably green, smooth, and oh-so-perfect.

Naturally, curiosity made me wonder about the reality of the grassy field. As I was walking across campus, I had a few extra minutes, so I took a detour and wandered down to the field to see what was going on. Much to my surprise, I found that it’s an artificial field! Can that be real? Are they really putting a LOT of water onto fake grass? It didn’t add up.

The question here is obvious… Why water the astroturf?

A big part of my curiosity engine is to keep asking about what it is I’m seeing. Does what I’m seeing make sense? Why is the land like that? Why are people standing in that line? What’s going on with the plants / animals / fish / water…

As it turned out, a groundskeeper was monitoring the sprinklers, so I was able to walk over and chat with him for a few moments and ask him the question. His answer surprised me–and perhaps it will surprise you as well.

As a Californian, I’m still stunned that this university in North Carolina would put so much water onto a surface without any plants, but NC doesn’t exist in a state of drought. In fact, the day before this photo was taken, it was raining very, very hard–one of those hard, tropical rains–which only made the field watering seem weirder.

This week’s Challenge:

1. Why do they water the artificial grass before (and sometimes during) a game?

2. In what other sports do they water the field before (and sometimes during) a game? Why do they water those fields?

As usual, I’m curious in what you learn in your search… but I’m VERY interested in how you found the answer. What was your SearchResearch process?

But most of all… why on earth would you water artificial grass?

Search on!