TECHNICAL
RT120 Quad Trak vibrating mole plough doing the main mileage around the course for the pipe to be laid. All other pipe laid was Polypipe 90mm HPPE SDR11 12.5 bar. For the more detailed work around greens and tees, a DitchWitch 5700 vibrating mole plough was used.
Kubota mini-diggers (U17/3 1.7tonne and KX71/3 3 tonne) were used for earth moving, and a 3-tonne Terex dumper running on turf tyres was the main workhorse for ferrying duties.
2.5mm Rainbird cabling was used for the electronics to control the sprinklers and the solenoid valves around the tees. Each sprinkler and solenoid is barcoded, enabling Course Manager Gerald Bruce to identify every individual sprinkler and setting on his golf course.
“The new irrigation system is linked to a weather station,” said Bruce, who has been at the golf club for thirty-four years. “It’s an intelligent system, so if we have set it to irrigate 4mm of water overnight, and we get 2mm of rainfall, the system only supplies the extra 2mm needed.”
“It is a huge upgrade for the club. Having a
computer-controlled water input system, with each component in the system controlled independently, will give us far better moisture control on our greens, which will lead to more consistent putting surfaces. This will help us with our plan to move towards more desirable bent-grass-dominant surfaces over the coming seasons.” “Now that we have extended our irrigation to include the approaches, we are far better-equipped to defend those areas from unwanted dryness, and of course we can also now manage our tees more easily - which makes me confident that they will also look much better as a result of the new irrigation system.”
“Golfers should notice a better blend from fairway to approach to putting surface, once the new irrigation system has begun to have an effect.”
Back in his office, Bruce can now control the entire irrigation system via two computer screens, and he also has full control via a phone app. “If needs be, I can now independently irrigate any particular dry spots on the golf course from my phone, right down to an individual sprinkler,” he
said. “This will save an enormous amount of time, and means that I can also look after the golf course remotely, or even from home.” “The weather station monitors things like temperature, rainfall and evapo-transpiration, which is the rate at which moisture is being removed from the surface. All parts of the system are designed to ‘talk’ to each other, and my team and I are thoroughly looking forward to having the new system in our armoury this season!”
On the time-saving aspects of the club’s new water-management system, Bruce said: “We will certainly save a lot of time in keeping dry areas alive, and there will be less need to hand-weed some parts of the estate owing to better moisture- control, but correspondingly we also expect to be doing more cutting on a regular basis as our grass will be growing better and more consistently.” “Plus, with almost six-hundred sprinkler heads to maintain, rather than the seventy-six we had previously, our workload will be similar to before, albeit with a different emphasis.”
“For example, our sixth hole has five
The old system was proving difficult for the club to upkeep. They weren’t
covering the approaches, and the tees weren’t irrigated either so it was a very comprehensive renewal
60th Berkhamsted Trophy underway 134 PC June/July 2019
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