The Irrigation Battle

A golf course is viewed by most as a giant playing surface composed of fairways, tees, greens, rough, and a driving range, but when we look deeper into what keeps all of these in the condition they are is a complex system composed of miles of irrigation pipe and wiring. It is an ongoing battle just to keep the irrigation system running properly and in sync with the change in temperature, wind, and ET and always issues with repairs and troubleshooting of the system. The picture below is a piece of 2" PVC that was installed 13 years ago during initial construction. Due to being installed too shallow, only about 10" below the surface, the pipe actually kinked from being driven over with equipment year after year.

 

After the broken pipe was cut out it was fixed and the hole was back filled. After a couple days the rough mowing unit passed over the area again and the section of pipe was broke yet again, mostly due to poor installation this time as well. As you can see in the picture below it blew out hundreds of gallons of water in the short amount of time that it leaked. This is not only an eye sore but creates a wet spot that can not be driven or played out of for a couple days. 

 



After breaking the second time I felt more comfortable fixing it myself this time. In the picture below you can see we decided to cut out the entire section of shallow pipe and use the back hoe to trench deep through the clay. Alex was in the trench doing the final prep before installing the new section of pipe and re-splicing the wiring together.

It has been almost a month now since this has happened and all is well. The area dried out nicely, and the sod took hold and is growing well. It was a battle but very rewarding to have your work hold up. Next time you are playing golf and see employees waste deep in a muddy hole, do them a favor and thank them for their hard work and dedication to the property while they do the best they can to get the area back to normal playing conditions.