Water Wise

As winter turns into spring we continue to see dry weather. Struggling trees on holes 8, 13, 15 and 18 are starting to show signs of stress due to the lack of moisture. Now that the ground is mostly thawed we are getting water to these areas to benefit trees as they break dormancy. Many of the needle tips in the photo below are turning brown. We set an impact head for a few hours to saturate the ground during the day so the root system can take up the required moisture.

The irrigation system is operational but we only have our pond water available to us. We are using water sparingly on slopes and south facing areas. Our main task right now is auditing the system which is one of the most important exercises that can be done on any golf course. A complete audit should be done once per year. It can be time consuming but it pays off in the end. We are finding sprinklers that are out of adjustment or that are damaged and we are making corrections. Some issues that need more attention are marked to be revisited soon. 

One reminder through the audit process is that we need to step up on our training efforts with interns and seasonal employees when using the irrigation system. Many times the staff can tap into a sprinkler to hand water the turf. Sometimes the internal sprinkler does not return to the canister properly and it causes problems in the future. When this happens especially at the end of a golf season, we may not see issues on the turf until the following season. This is another great reason why auditing all irrigation systems is highly important. 

We also see aging materials of the irrigation system. About 50-100 older heads are swapped with new sprinklers each year. We are in year 3 of replacing nozzles in fairways. The nozzles are worn down after 15 years of nightly use and correcting nozzles helps with distribution uniformity. The audit process includes inspecting the satellite boxes and communication to each and every sprinkler.