Irrigation Inventory Complete!

After slogging through two months of checking every sprinkler on the golf course, soaking our assistant Joe on far too many occasions, and even occasionally soaking an unsuspecting golf cart (sorry!...again!), we've finally finished the tedious but very important task of taking inventory of all the irrigation sprinklers.

To remind those of you who may not know or remember, we embarked upon this task because it was somewhat obvious at the end of last summer that the irrigation system wasn't functioning quite as it should. The requirement for handwatering was far too great for this advanced of an irrigation system and, to top it off, when we checked the computer used to program irrigation, it thinks it's putting out 100,000 gallons, yet the flowmeter on the pump station the morning after says it actually put out closer to 300,000 gallons! Something was definitely wrong....

Just over 2,000 sprinkler checks later, we've ascertained the majority of those problems. The troubling, though not completely unexpected, news is that approximately 38% of the sprinklers had some sort of functional problem, ranging from minor to major. The bulk of the problems we've categorized as such:

- Arc adjustment: All part circles operate on an arc, or some part of a full circle. With some sprinklers, the arc was too much, or too little, causing either overthrow or missed spots where turf wasn't getting hit at all. On others, the arc was fine, but the entire sprinkler was rotated to water the wrong area (i.e. native area or cart path) as opposed to the turf it should be irrigating.

- Leaking: Fairly obvious; a number of heads had problems leaking water, either while running, or just while stagnant, just from being pressurized. These leaks cause overwatering and perennial wet spots.

- Nozzle problem: The nozzles on a sprinkler dictate the range (how far) of the throw of that sprinkler. Some nozzles were worn out, others were incorrectly sized, causing sprinklers to throw water too far, or not far enough.

- Internal drive problems: The majority of these are sprinklers that are currently full circle that need to be changed over to part circle. Most are located on and around tee complexes. The full circles cause over-irrigation and overgrowth of surrounding native areas and weeds that don't need that extra water. Other sprinklers had gears that had gone bad, such that they no longer rotate at all and stay stuck watering in one spot the whole time.

- Raise & level: In order for a sprinkler to operate as designed, it needs to be flush to grade and level with the surrounding slope. If a sprinkler is too low, or set at an odd angle, the irrigation is compromised, either by reduced range or interference from surrounding turf.

- Trim or move: Over the course of time, many sprinklers on the perimeter of the course have snuck farther into the native areas or become overgrown by surrounding plants and turf. Some of these need to be moved back to the edge of the mow lines, or need to be trimmed or mowed around enough to not have surrounding plant material interfere with their job of irrigating.

- Electrical problems: These are often the hardest to solve and most perplexing. Some sprinklers we found, but they don't turn on electronically. Some sprinklers run on multiple stations. Some sprinklers are oddly combined with other sprinklers they shouldn't be. And some stations on the controllers have a wire, but we can't find a sprinkler to go with it. We'll solve these problems by tracing wires, replacing electronics and, in some areas, redesigning or modifying the existing layout of the sprinklers.

So there's still alot of work to be done. But the promising part is that we now have a "face" to our monster. We know what's in front of us to tackle. And tackle it we will. And once the problems are fixed, and the central control computer has been updated to reflect exactly what's out in the field, this multi-million dollar irrigation tool should finally operate as it should, and help immensely in keeping our turf alive, healthy and thriving.

Above the Fog, Below the Snow

After nearly 28 inches of rain and too many frosty mornings to count, we can't complain that Winchester is living up to it's motto of being "above the fog and below the snow." I feel so sorry for my superintendent friends swamped in the valley.

It won't be long before the grass starts growing like crazy again! Though we definetley wouldn't mind getting a little more rain.....

Happy New Year!!

What a way to welcome in 2011!! Here are pictures from early morning, New Year's Day: