Golf course properties are digging beneath the surface to stay on top of irrigation innovations.
As water management and environmental stewardship continue to dominate golf course maintenance practices, superintendents are taking a proactive role to ensure that they use available resources cost-effectively. But when irrigation systems start to show their age, golf course conditions and playability can suffer. Whether they involve replacing system components or complete overhauls, irrigation system upgrades are giving course superintendents the technology and know-how to do their jobs more efficiently.
Out With the Old
La Rinconada Country Club in Los Gatos, Calif., replaced its irrigation control system about six months ago, after the previous system began to experience communication problems with the controllers in the field. In addition, reports Certified Golf Course Superintendent Kevin Breen, the time it took to diagnose and repair problems was becoming cost-prohibitive.
SUMMING IT UP
|
As another incentive, La Rinconada earned a $29,000 rebate from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which supplies the northern California property’s water, under a program that offers rebates to businesses and homeowners that upgrade their irrigation systems.
“We wanted to become more efficient with our watering,” explains Breen, who wanted a system that could operate and manage irrigation practices based on geographic information system (GIS) technology. “There have been a lot of advances in technology and software in all fields, and irrigation is no different.” Calling it easy to manage and understand, Breen believes GIS “is the future of the business.”
In Southern California, San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo Inn completed a five-month, $2 million overhaul this past February of its irrigation system, which dated back to the property’s opening in the 1960s. The project helped to improve playing conditions as well as save water and electrical costs.
Rancho Bernardo’s new system includes five miles of mainline pipe ranging from six to 14 inches in size, 20 miles of lateral pipe that branches off the mainline, and more than 3,000 heads. Instead of having system controllers in the field, however, each head has a microchip that offers individual control.
“Every head has single-station control and a two-way communication system to our central control,” notes Golf Course Superintendent Chris Hayman. “This makes us more efficient with our water, which is a precious natural resource. ”
Elcona Country Club in Bristol, Ind., completely replaced its irrigation system in 2009 with a four-month, $1.4 million project. “It got to the point that it was no longer cost-effective to continue making repairs, and we were not meeting members’ expectations with our course conditions,” says Golf Course Superintendent Greg Shaffer. “Reliability was also a huge part of it.”
The new decoder-based system runs entirely off of a central computer, and each head has its own address that can be controlled remotely by hand-held radio.
“We punch in numbers on a keypad to turn on the heads,” explains Shaffer. “We can control it remotely from wherever there is Internet access.”
Elcona’s new system also has a weather station that allows the maintenance staff to track the evapotranspiration (ET) rate daily. “This allows us to put water back into the soil on a daily basis, but we do not irrigate daily,” Shaffer reports.
The property generally irrigates every third day during the summer. However, adds Shaffer, “In the spring and the fall we can stretch it out longer than that.”
Flexibility and Control
Since the installation of the new control system at La Rinconada, Breen has adjusted some maintenance practices accordingly. The staff has increased its hand-watering and decreased the number of days it waters the greens.
Breen, who has worked at the property for two years, says the staff previously watered every night before he arrived. Now, however, the crew waters about every four days. “You can water small amounts more often, but my philosophy is to water a little more, less frequently,” he explains.
He creates his irrigation programs based on ET data and a daily inspection of the golf course for wet and dry spots.
“There’s almost no limit to the number of programs that we can create,” Breen says. “We can have the heads turned on and off seasonally, or we can set them to run for different dates.
“We’re able to create programs more efficiently and more easily,” he continues. “The integration of our map with the spreadsheets behind the map has been nice to have together. We can monitor our soil moisture, temperature and salinity. To have that ability as part of our irrigation system is a big advantage.”
In addition, notes Breen, “Having access to the system with an iPad or other mobile device is a nice feature for superintendents. You don’t have to spend as much time at your desk. You can get out in the field. The superintendent has a mobile office.”
Rancho Bernardo’s Hayman agrees. “I can control the system from my iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world,” he concurs. “It gives me good flexibility to make last-minute changes.”
It took eight hours of pumping to water the entire course with the previous irrigation system, Hayman says. With the new system, however, he can water the whole course in two to four hours, resulting in tremendous savings in electrical costs.
“Another benefit is that everything is below ground,” Hayman reports. “Things that are above ground are susceptible to weather, and they need to be changed out more frequently.”
Sustainability is a constant force behind the maintenance practices at Elcona CC, which is certified under the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. While Shaffer calls irrigation “a big part of that equation,” he adds that, “I don’t think [the new system] has changed our philosophy on how we irrigate. It just allows us to do it more efficiently.”
Learning Curve
Breen estimates that the La Rinconada property now uses 75 to 80 percent of its irrigation control system features. “We started with the basics to learn the system. As the summer went on, we got more efficient,” he says.
The staff took training classes from the irrigation system manufacturer, and the local distributor offers a strong support network as well. “We implemented what we learned in the classroom, and we’ve had plenty of on-the-job training,” notes Breen. “It takes time to learn the system and get comfortable. In the winter we’ll catch up a little bit more.”
Hayman estimates that, with the help of training classes, the Rancho Bernardo grounds crew is using 85 percent of its irrigation system’s features. “Learning the new technology and utilizing it to its fullest potential has been a welcome challenge, but the service and support have been great,” he reveals. “I spend a lot of time producing electrical and water-use reports, and checking on diagnostics and the system voltage.”
An interactive map on the central computer gives Hayman the ability to see the location of each head in the field, click on it, and make changes as needed. He can create hundreds of programs with the system, he says.
“If the men’s club is playing on Mondays and they don’t want wet bunkers, then we can adjust the heads so they won’t have wet traps,” Hayman explains. “There are a lot of little things we can do to fine-tune it.”
Shaffer, who has been at Elcona CC since 2006, was familiar with the new system’s computer and software from his work at another course. However, he and his staff received training from his local distributor on features such as making diagnostics and repairs. “Anything we specifically requested to be in the system, we use,” he says.
Their requests included a specific software package for the weather station, which communicates directly with the irrigation software; radio controls; individual head controls; and the ability of the pumps for the property’s four ponds to communicate with each other by radio frequency.
Measurable Results
When properties upgrade their irrigation systems, it generally doesn’t take them long to see measurable results.
“There are a lot of adjustments to make when a system is new, but at this point we are 10 to 15 percent more efficient than we were a year ago,” reports Breen.
However, he adds, it is hard to compare this year with last, because La Rinconada replanted the golf course with more water-efficient grass species about a year ago.
At the Rancho Bernardo golf course, notes Hayman, “Areas that didn’t get water for so many years are starting to fill in.” In addition, he continues, an employee who has worked at the golf course for 30-plus years has seen noticeable improvements. “He mows the rough, and he says everything is so much better and more uniform,” Hayman reports.
While the first year of numbers are still being gathered, Hayman says he has also seen savings in electrical costs and water usage. “We have better quality and playability for our guests,” he reports. “There are no wet and dry spots, and we can cut back on specific areas.”
The Rancho Bernardo Inn’s new system runs off a weather station that can determine how much water the property has lost during the day through ET.
“It gives us a number, tells the central computer, and automatically programs the heads to run the amount of water needed,” Hayman explains. “When it rains, it shuts the system down.”
On average, Elcona CC has seen a 30 to 40 percent savings in water usage in the last five years, and Shaffer says the property has also enjoyed a significant decrease in electrical costs. “We upgraded to variable frequency-drive panels, which allows us to pump only to the speed necessary to put water out in the field,” he explains.
The superintendent has seen other positive results from the upgraded system as well. “Member satisfaction is up, but I don’t know how you quantify that, other than comments. And my peace of mind is certainly higher,” Shaffer says.
Powers of Persuasion
Costly irrigation upgrades can be a “hard sell” to members, Hayman admits. “We had the system upgrade on our capital list for a long time, and the stars finally came into alignment,” he says. He attributes getting the green light for the project to several factors: the resort management team recognized that the cost of water was rising incrementally; the property was starting to spend a lot of money on repairs; and the quality and condition of the 18-hole golf course was diminishing.
“The course looked patchy after the rainy season,” Hayman says. “We have golfers from all over the world play here in winter and summer, so we need to look good all year.”
The timing of the project was advantageous as well. With the economy coming out of the recession, he explains, the property was able to get good prices on expenses.
While member satisfaction—along with decreased energy consumption and improved reliability and consistency—was a driving force behind the Elcona project, Shaffer says it nevertheless took some convincing to bring the membership on board.
“The groundwork had begun prior to my arrival, and it took a while,” he reveals. “It was a tough sell because the economy was starting to get bad.”
Carrying On
Rancho Bernardo’s golf course stayed open the entire time its new irrigation system was being installed. “We only worked on one or two holes at a time, and it was surprisingly non-invasive for our guests,” Hayman reports. “We got out in front of it by doing things like giving out drink tickets. If a big tournament was already on the books, we didn’t work that day.”
During the construction process, the Rancho Bernardo Inn also modified holes as needed by moving tees, creating temporary greens, or converting par-4 holes to par 3s.
Elcona’s course also remained open throughout construction. The contractors started the project by installing the main line along the exterior of each hole when play began to drop off for the season; typically only one hole was closed each day.
“It’s important to communicate effectively to the membership, and during construction it was a challenge to keep the old system active while putting the new system in,” says Shaffer.
Back to the Future
To produce a quality product with less water, even superintendents who are up to date expect irrigation advances to continue. “Everybody’s going to need to become much more efficient with their water,” says Breen. “The cost of water will force them to do that, and superintendents will need to push for sustainability.
“Players and owners often say they appreciate sustainability efforts or would like to be a part of it,” he adds. “But unless it’s financially driven, it’s hard to do. We like green. It’s innate. It’s part of our genetic makeup. That’s where our sensibilities are. Brown is not an easy sell.”
Hayman, a board member of the San Diego Golf Industry Water Conservation Task Force, agrees that sustainability will continue to be a key to successful golf course maintenance operations. From the planting of low-water, low-maintenance vegetation to pesticide applications, he says every aspect of golf course maintenance is geared toward sustainability.
“A lot of courses will have to make tough decisions,” he says. “Irrigation systems are not meant to be permanent, and it’s important to have the right tools to do the job.”
While some properties currently use hand-held moisture sensors or have sensors in some greens, Shaffer expects properties to use more course-wide field sensors in the ground in the future. Until that day comes, however, he hopes to invest in hand-held sensors at Elcona next year. “Water conservation and water restrictions are going to be a huge part of this industry going forward,” he says.
And change, of course, will remain a staple of the golf course maintenance business as well.
“It’s an exciting time for the irrigation industry and the innovations that are coming along—as a superintendent, I’m excited to see what’s new,” says Breen, who has been in the business for 26 years. “It has changed the superintendent’s work day. You can water more efficiently, and it’s easier to diagnose problems and keep track of what you’re doing. It’s just all at your fingertips.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.