Another Pump Station Upgrade

If you haven't gathered from my multiple posts regarding irrigation, it is a very important component to golf courses located in the South West Region.  The programming of the central computer and field satellites are only useful if a water source, electricity, a pump station capable of supplying the demand, and field piping infrastructure are present.


A pump station typically contains primary components including a CPU panel (with it's own software), high horse power motors, pump bowls, and intake and discharge pipes.  At certain points in an irrigation cycle the demand will exceed the performance of a motor/pump and a second motor/pump will be called upon to account for this demand.  In this situation, a high pressure window can occur (especially in our circumstances here where we do not have a VFD to operate our motors).  The newest addition to ACC's Irrigation pump station is a 3" High Pressure Relief Cla-Val.  This apparatus discharges water/pressure from the mainline pipe within the pump station when the pressure reaches a set "high pressure" point.  This is a safety mechanism in place to protect over pressurization of our old piping system and limit the pipe breakage that can result from repeated high pressure situations.

Tree Roots

After removing key Sycamore Trees from strategic locations adjacent to the practice putting green, we now must address the "quirky" irrigation layout.  In the photos below, Alejandro is relocating a full circle irrigation head to the outside edge of the chipping green.  Running irrigation piping under golf features is a sign of poor design and installation.  (See post identifying pipe running through the bunker on Hole #3 green surround).  In the coming weeks, the entire irrigation layout surrounding the practice putting greens will be renovated.  

As you can see in the image below, tree roots are definitely present in the green profile and love to follow irrigation pipes.  The bottom picture shows how a large tree root was encircling the irrigation pipe as it navigated deeper into the green profile.

Core Aerification Process

This past Monday, the Greens were core aerified and heavily topdressed with sand.  The photos below illustrate the process, which takes a full twelve hours to accomplish.  We core aerify the greens once per growing season.  This cultural practice is scheduled in the spring to improve water infiltration and increase field capacity of the profile.  The benefits are reaped in the upcoming heat of the summer.  Aerification is a "mandatory" surface disruption that allows for the exceptional surfaces that the membership experience throughout the other forty seven weeks of the season.  I say forty seven weeks, because the healing process will take approximately five weeks from coring to re-established perfection.  Improvement will be noted daily.  Soil temperature and weather can impact the recovery period.  If it is cold the recovery process is slower.  The idea of delaying core aerification until April (when both air and soil temperatures are higher and day length is longer) has been discussed by the Green Committee and will be decided upon in the next few months. 

Process:


1.  Coring the greens via walk behind machine with 5/8" O.D. (Outside Diameter) tines to a depth of 4".
2.  Hand removal of cores.
3.  Blowing the greens to remove excess debris.
4.  Rolling the greens to achieve a smooth surface for sand applications.
5.  Applying sand via a topdressing machine to a volume enough to fill the holes and blanket the surface.
6.  After the sand is allowed to dry, the sand is brushed into the holes via a drag brush attached to a utility cart.  Subsequent hand brushing is utilized to address sand depth consistency.
7.  Water is then applied to assist in the settling of the sand and to adequately hydrate the plant for recovery.
8.  Nightly watering assists in sand settling.
9.  Roll the surface and mow when Bentgrass growth peaks through the sand.  (Roughly one week after Sand application)

Plus One

The spacing of irrigation heads at the approach on Hole #17 has been an issue that we have spent many hours masking with hand watering over the past few seasons.  This March, we relocated a few heads to shift the triangulation, and installed an additional full circle head to correct distribution uniformity issues.  This project was completed in a few hours, prior to play, and was barely noticeable when completed.