In the above aerial photo of hole number two the current location of the irrigation sprinklers are marked by dots. The yellow dots and the sprinkler coverage circle surrounding them indicate the present location of sprinklers that are designated to water the green. The red dots and the sprinkler coverage circles surrounding them indicate the location of sprinklers that are designated to water the rough and the blue dots and circle indicate the location of sprinklers designated to water the fairway approach.
As you can see the uniformity and spacing of the sprinklers are excellent and if the entire area required the same irrigation there would be no issue. The challenge is that within a very small area we are managing three very different turf areas. Here is a short description of each area:
- Greens are providence creeping bent grass mowed at less than 1/10th of an inch on a daily basis. The greens were built to USGA specifications and are growing on a 12 inch plus base of 90 % sand and 10% peat mixture.
- Fairway approaches are penn eagle creeping bent grass mowed at 4/10ths of an inch, three to four times per week. They are growing on a 1" sand cap on top of very heavy dense clay loam soils.
- The Rough areas are kentucky blue grass mowed twice per week at 2.5 inches. They grow on heavy clay loam soils.
In addition to the physical differences in these areas described above we are also challenged to provide healthy, firm playing surfaces on greens and approaches while maintaining healthy, dense rough surrounds. Here are a few examples of the challenges we face:
- USGA greens should be irrigated with "Drenching" type cycles that brings the system to field capacity and then should be allowed to dry out for several days. This is virtually impossible with our current single head system and would result in extremely wet approaches and surrounds.
- Tournament Prep. On those occasion where we would like to ramp up conditions for special events by firming up surfaces to a greater degree the single head system limits our ability to dry out playing surfaces like greens and approaches while maintaining healthy thick rough areas surrounding the greens as well as providing enough moisture to the bunkers to keep them firm.
As a result we are forced to manage surfaces to a compromise between desired moisture levels for each, usually resulting in greens and approaches being wetter than we would like.
In the above photo I have indicated the location of the new dual head system that also includes a third head in the front of the greens where necessary to provide separate irrigation of the green, the approach and the rough surrounds.
The irrigation distribution circle surrounding the three new sprinklers has be divided into the appropriate areas (the blue head waters the approach only, the red head waters rough and the bunker only and the yellow head waters the green only). This improvement will allow us to manage these three very different turf areas individually and will result in improved turf health, improved playing conditions and improved efficiency in labor required to hand water.
I would appreciate any question or concerns you may have concerning this project... please contact me at chris.coen@glenoakscc.com.
