Does your golf course have Automated Irrigation? Cancel The title field is required!

1. Letterman David M

   
   7/27/2011 2:07 PM

   I am the Superintendent at a Private Club here in the Mountains of Western North Carolina. I have been the Superintendent here now for 11 years. The golf course has been here for 43 years and has never had irrigation manual or automated on the Fairways, Tees, and Rough. We water 15 greens with potable water meters and 2 greens with gas powered pumps from creeks and 2 with a 5 hp electric pump from ponds on the 13 Hole. We currently are proposing an Irrigation System to the Membership, of which, we enlisted the services of an irrigation consultant to give us the layout, specifications (gpm flow, how many pumps, heads, etc..)
   
   Here is my question(s). Does anybody on this forum live in the stone age and still have to manage a golf course without irrigation on certain aspects of your golf course? We manually irrigate all the greens thru various iterations. Some greens have valve-in-head that we flag on, some block orientation that we valve one, one that we hand water only. Please give me any feed back you so desire, as I will use this in presenting to the Long Range Planning Committee and the Board of Directors. I realize that this may be confidential information, so your name and the name of your club will not be used. I only need to know if there are courses that have non-irrigated "key aspects" of the turfgrass. Individuals that are so inclined can email me a dlwlcc@ccvn.com or send a PM if you want to be more specific with your information and feedback. Thanks!!!

   
   
   
   
2. Letterman David M

   
   7/27/2011 2:07 PM

   I am sorry that I posted this 4 time, but the system kept telling me that the service was unavailable. Obviously, it was available. Any input would be useful!

   
   
   
   
3. Trevor Monreal

   

   5 posts
   
   7/28/2011 7:07 AM

   Wish I could help you but I'm somewhere in the "iron" age.
   There are a few guys on here that can do things without their Ipad...hopefully they send you some info.
   Good luck.

   
   
   
   
4. Nowakowski Michael J

   
   7/28/2011 7:07 AM

   I am at a semi private 18 hole course with a diesel motor running our irrigation pump. It is diesel because we have no power to that location. Wires are in the ground for some holes, and we have tried an AC/DC converter and generator to run the heads but somewhere out there, there is a short and until we find it, no power. From the clubhouse, power was run to two nearby satellites that run 3 fairways, 3 tees and 1 green. The rest of the greens are valve in head but we have to manually turn them on and off. All tees are the same. Of the remaining 15 fairways, 5 have heads that are manually turned on, the other 10 fairways have nothing.
   Fortunately or unfortunately, we have had so much rain this year that the pump has run 10 hours total, with 4 of those hours used to fill the system in the spring. Last year we ran it for 40 hours and I thought that was a record I would not beat, pretty sure I will this year.
   One upside I have found is that with this type of system, the course is much healthier due to the fact that it is a pain to run, so therefore, I water deep and infrequently, and the resulting root growth on all areas is so much better than on other courses I have been at where I may have gotten "lazy" watering with a fully automatic system.

   
   
   
   
5. Letterman David M

   
   7/28/2011 2:07 PM

   wolfman said: I am the Superintendent at a Private Club here in the Mountains of Western North Carolina. I have been the Superintendent here now for 11 years. The golf course has been here for 43 years and has never had irrigation manual or automated on the Fairways, Tees, and Rough. We water 15 greens with potable water meters and 2 greens with gas powered pumps from creeks and 2 with a 5 hp electric pump from ponds on the 13 Hole. We currently are proposing an Irrigation System to the Membership, of which, we enlisted the services of an irrigation consultant to give us the layout, specifications (gpm flow, how many pumps, heads, etc..)
   
   Here is my question(s). Does anybody on this forum live in the stone age and still have to manage a golf course without irrigation on certain aspects of your golf course? We manually irrigate all the greens thru various iterations. Some greens have valve-in-head that we flag on, some block orientation that we valve one, one that we hand water only. Please give me any feed back you so desire, as I will use this in presenting to the Long Range Planning Committee and the Board of Directors. I realize that this may be confidential information, so your name and the name of your club will not be used. I only need to know if there are courses that have non-irrigated "key aspects" of the turfgrass. Individuals that are so inclined can email me a dlwlcc@ccvn.com or send a PM if you want to be more specific with your information and feedback. Thanks!!!

   
   TTT

   
   
   
   
6. Letterman David M

   
   7/28/2011 9:07 PM

   wolfman said:

   wolfman said: I am the Superintendent at a Private Club here in the Mountains of Western North Carolina. I have been the Superintendent here now for 11 years. The golf course has been here for 43 years and has never had irrigation manual or automated on the Fairways, Tees, and Rough. We water 15 greens with potable water meters and 2 greens with gas powered pumps from creeks and 2 with a 5 hp electric pump from ponds on the 13 Hole. We currently are proposing an Irrigation System to the Membership, of which, we enlisted the services of an irrigation consultant to give us the layout, specifications (gpm flow, how many pumps, heads, etc..)
   
   Here is my question(s). Does anybody on this forum live in the stone age and still have to manage a golf course without irrigation on certain aspects of your golf course? We manually irrigate all the greens thru various iterations. Some greens have valve-in-head that we flag on, some block orientation that we valve one, one that we hand water only. Please give me any feed back you so desire, as I will use this in presenting to the Long Range Planning Committee and the Board of Directors. I realize that this may be confidential information, so your name and the name of your club will not be used. I only need to know if there are courses that have non-irrigated "key aspects" of the turfgrass. Individuals that are so inclined can email me a dlwlcc@ccvn.com or send a PM if you want to be more specific with your information and feedback. Thanks!!!

   
   Surely someone out their doesn't have irrigation and is willing to talk about it. Any input would be appreciated

   
   
   
   
7. Letterman David M

   
   7/30/2011 5:07 AM

   wolfman said: I am the Superintendent at a Private Club here in the Mountains of Western North Carolina. I have been the Superintendent here now for 11 years. The golf course has been here for 43 years and has never had irrigation manual or automated on the Fairways, Tees, and Rough. We water 15 greens with potable water meters and 2 greens with gas powered pumps from creeks and 2 with a 5 hp electric pump from ponds on the 13 Hole. We currently are proposing an Irrigation System to the Membership, of which, we enlisted the services of an irrigation consultant to give us the layout, specifications (gpm flow, how many pumps, heads, etc..)
   
   Here is my question(s). Does anybody on this forum live in the stone age and still have to manage a golf course without irrigation on certain aspects of your golf course? We manually irrigate all the greens thru various iterations. Some greens have valve-in-head that we flag on, some block orientation that we valve one, one that we hand water only. Please give me any feed back you so desire, as I will use this in presenting to the Long Range Planning Committee and the Board of Directors. I realize that this may be confidential information, so your name and the name of your club will not be used. I only need to know if there are courses that have non-irrigated "key aspects" of the turfgrass. Individuals that are so inclined can email me a dlwlcc@ccvn.com or send a PM if you want to be more specific with your information and feedback. Thanks!!!

   
   
   
   
8. Ronald Conard

   

   4 posts
   
   7/30/2011 3:07 PM

   wolfman said:
   Surely someone out their doesn't have irrigation and is willing to talk about it. Any input would be appreciated

   
   
   Maybe those without irrigation systems also don't have a computers??

   
   
   
   
9. Fleegel Timothy

   
   7/30/2011 11:07 PM

   Sorry "WolfMan". Here in the desert of eastern Washington if there is no irrigation system there is no golf course.

   
   
   
   
10. Thomas Brown

    

    0 posts
    
    7/31/2011 7:07 AM

    David,
    
    First of all, I'd like to thank you for making me feel better about my state of the art 1966 irrigation system. At least I have a single row manual system for my fairways (not exactly in the center though). The greens and tees were partially automated with a clock system when I came, but ground faults and misc. electrical problems caused us to convert to manual valve and bleed screws. This requires a night watering person that's not afraid of the dark and who's trustworthy. In the mid-Atlantic we are watering every night right now, so I am grateful for the guy who doesn't mind getting wet, working weekends and holidays for $13/hr.
    
    I've been here 34 years and through three sets of owners and the last two talked of upgrading the system, but with this economy there's no more talk. We are semi-private with a budget of around $275,000.
    
    Good luck!
    
    Tom

    
    
    
    
11. Mark Van Lienden

    

    14 posts
    
    8/1/2011 6:08 AM

    Hey there wolfman.We are only a bit over an hour from you.We had no irrigation on most tees and all fairways when I got here 13 years ago.First thing I did was put in irrigation.Second thing was put bermuda in the fairways and the tees.We could probley do well without the fairway irrigation as our average monthly rainfall is 3 inches per month.We had 10 or 12 greens on block systems with town water and the rest we pumped out of a pond with a 10 horse pump and the pump had two 90 degree elbows on the intake side.The conditions now do not compare to what was here before.Everyone agrees that the irrigation was the best thing to happen here in 75 years.

    
    
    
    
12. Letterman David M

    
    8/1/2011 11:08 AM

    thbrown said: David,
    
    First of all, I'd like to thank you for making me feel better about my state of the art 1966 irrigation system. At least I have a single row manual system for my fairways (not exactly in the center though). The greens and tees were partially automated with a clock system when I came, but ground faults and misc. electrical problems caused us to convert to manual valve and bleed screws. This requires a night watering person that's not afraid of the dark and who's trustworthy. In the mid-Atlantic we are watering every night right now, so I am grateful for the guy who doesn't mind getting wet, working weekends and holidays for $13/hr.
    
    I've been here 34 years and through three sets of owners and the last two talked of upgrading the system, but with this economy there's no more talk. We are semi-private with a budget of around $275,000.
    
    Good luck!
    
    Tom

    
    
    Glad I could help (LOL)! I have been here for 11 years and have preached about, pleaded for, and educated the membership as to the benefits of irrigation. We are wall to wall cool season of which we are mainly bent/poa ( mountain mix) most everywhere. We have tried to establish more heat and drought tolerant stands of turf in the fairways. You'd be amazed how persistent the new Perennial Rye grasses are these days. That is about of only option given the fairly short germination period it has. We are an Member Owned, Private Equity Club, of which, most of our member overwinter at other mid to high-end clubs in Southeast. This is their play ground where they come to enjoy mid 70's until July, August, and September as our club house sits at 4,400 ft of elevation. During the last couple summers rainfall has been sporadic and that is generally when the tees, fairways, and rough start to suffer. We do everything we can to promote healthy turf during the spring and fall ( preventative grub control, growth regulation for seed head control, liquid fertility) but no cool season turf can tolerate 2 to 3 weeks without supplemental irrigation or rainfall. We get around 120 plus inches of snow annually, so getting a head start in early Spring generally doesn't happen. We always start the season off with fairly good turf in the non-irrigated areas, but by the end of the season these areas are thin, weak, and weed infested. Anyway, thanks for the input, and I hope the rest of the 2011 summer treats you well.

    
    
    
    
13. James Smith

    

    112 posts
    
    8/1/2011 2:08 PM

    We use to be like that. Playing on our fairways meant little to no grass, hard as a rock and a senior could hit the ball 150yds and it would roll another 100yds. I was able to convince the membership to install a new system though. It took me running a single row of heads down one fairway and growing it back in (they rebuilt the fairway the winter before I took over so there was no grass) before they could see the benifits of an irrigation system. It also took an extremely great price on a new system. We installed about 450 heads and while we are not wall to wall we are about 80%. All Greens, Tees and Fairways have heads and we have a 1200gpm pump station with Rainbird electric heads and did the whole system for about $250,000. While I used a contractor for the work he did what I told him each day and allowed my crew to help with certain parts of the install. He completed the system 2 weeks early due to my diligence of keeping his crew moving and not wasting time. Our pump station ran about $50,000 and I built a brick building around it for about another $1,500.
    
    I find that you can get a good system on the low but you better be prepaired to work alongside the contractor keeping an eye on what he does and how. Taking loads of pictures would be a great addition also.

    
    
    
    
14. Letterman David M

    
    8/1/2011 3:08 PM

    Our situation is a little different here. We have 1000ft of elevation change to overcome and the water is at the lowest point on the course. We have plenty of water, but the pump system alone installed will cost 750,000 for 800 gpm, which consists of the main pump and (9)booster stations. The system consists of 600 heads as of now. adding to the cost is the fact that (5) of these booster will need over sized VFDs to power phz convert for the pump. Initial cost estimates came in at 1.1 million turn key cost with Rock Contingencies. With the slopes we have we need 2 and 3 rows in the landing areas to facilitate build health stands of turf capable of keep balls in play. Right now if we dry out, It is almost impossible to keep tee shots in play and several holes. Thanks for the input, and keep your fingers crossed for me!

    
    
    
    
15. Smith Tim

    
    8/3/2011 1:08 PM

    Automated? Whats that? Im at an 18 hole private with a poorly designed single row quick coupler system. At this time of year when we have to rely on it, it gets nice and wet down the center and the edges of the fairways cook out. Members constantly complaining.

    
    
    
    
16. Letterman David M

    
    8/4/2011 8:08 PM

    tmjer said: Automated? Whats that? Im at an 18 hole private with a poorly designed single row quick coupler system. At this time of year when we have to rely on it, it gets nice and wet down the center and the edges of the fairways cook out. Members constantly complaining.

    
    
    I should have Titled this Thread as "Does you golf course have Irrigation", right now automated would be optional.

    
    
    
    
17. Andy Jorgensen

    

    1 posts
    
    8/5/2011 2:08 PM

    [quote"> We have tried to establish more heat and drought tolerant stands of turf in the fairways. You'd be amazed how persistent the new Perennial Rye grasses are these days. .
    
    You ain't kidding. Central Florida overseeded with Ph.D. perrennial Ryegrass blend last fall. We still have remnants of Rye in certain areas.