Unusual sprinkler problem

I had noticed an unusual water pattern around one of our sprinklers on the 11th fairway on the weekend. When I turned the twin row sprinklers on to test them, one popped up normally and the other dribbled out and wouldn't pop up properly.

Irregular watering pattern on the 11th fairway

After dismantling the sprinkler, checking the valve assembly, solenoid assembly, selector stem and the screen at the base of the sprinkler casing, I reassembled the sprinkler and gave it a test run. Still no luck. With the sprinkler drive removed from the casing and manually turning the sprinkler on it appeared to have decent flow. I then reassembled the sprinkler again and gave it another run - still no good.

Removal of the sprinkler

Having tried everything I know to find an obstruction in the sprinkler the next step was the pipework. Starting with the swing joint I found shards of broken fibrolite pipe in one of the elbows and further investigation found more in the pipe connecting the swing joint. It took some time to remove it all and recommission the sprinkler.  Again another test and success!!!

Debris in swing joint

Debris from the pipe

This debris is the remains of damage caused by the earthquakes 4 years ago!!! Who knows how many more times we need to do this. 

Sprinkler now working perfectly

  

Course Update

With Summer in full swing our rough is drying out and we are getting good definition between the fairways and the rough. The  unmown areas are now drying out into wispy, tall rough that is giving even more definition.

The dry rough from 15th tee

Wispy rough looking toward the 4th green

So far this summer it has been very dry and with the new control system computer now operational watering has been fairly constant. We have been doing quite a bit of hand watering to try and keep the the soil moisture profile fairly even. Having applied wetting agent to more areas on the golf course, and using the moisture meter, we have had better and more accurate water application. The irrigation system has been reasonably reliable with the occasional repair being made to pipework, valves or sprinkler.

Sprinkler operating on the 12th green

Pipe repair at the 16th tee 

As  a reminder to members greens renovation is booked in for the 16th & 17th February.  Before that we will be venting the greens with 8mm pencil tynes to keep the moisture penetrating into the soil profile. As we have done all summer, sand dusting on greens will be continuing on a regular basis. 

One thing to note is there has been no Nitrogen fertiliser application since early November which has kept the Browntop bentgrass strong and the Poa under stress. I am generally fairly pleased with how the greens are coping with our dry summer and expect the greens to kick on after the February renovations.

Happy Holidays

Since the last post we have replaced the old irrigation control computer with a new one. We had to buy a 32bit operating system and install that onto the computer to make it compatible with the irrigation control system software. After a few little issues with missing files we managed to get the entire system running perfectly and have reinstalled all the backed up data from the old computer. In all it took about 2 weeks to get everything back to a normally functioning irrigation system and hopefully we will have minimal operation of sprinklers during daylight hours. I would like to thank the golfers for their patience during this down time as we had to irrigate during the daytime when we manually turned sprinklers on while golfers were playing.

Now that the system is fully functioning we have noticed a couple of niggling electrical issues that is causing some sprinklers not to turn on, or in some instances they will turn on, then immediately turn off. We have had this happen other years and as yet we have been unable to identify the cause (it appears to be a random occurrence and will correct itself).  It is during this time of year that we historically get issues with electrical problems and pipe leaks in the watering system. I will be on course most days during the holidays checking on the condition of the irrigation system.

I wish all the members all the best for the Christmas break and good golfing in the New Year. See you all out there and hopefully we all have a great 2015.

Course Update

A couple of weeks ago we had a run of very windy weather which caused quite a bit of debris to be blown about the course. One Saturday morning when mowing greens I came across a large branch on the 13th fairway that had fallen from a big pine tree to the left of the fairway. The wind had been so strong that the debris covered the entire width of the fairway. With help from member & neighbour, Robbie Franklin, we got the branch removed before the first group of golfers came through.

 Large branch across the 13th fairway

A few posts back I mentioned that we are regularly dusting the greens with sand and using an old Vicon fertiliser spreader to do the job. While not ideal, it is adequate to apply a light covering of sand to the surface.

Vicon spreader applying sand to the greens 

Another maintenance procedure we have just completed on the greens is pencil tyning. This involves 8mm solid tynes closely spaced, at a depth of 125mm and the process took just over a day to complete with minimal surface damage. The aim of this procedure is to create thousands of small fissures from the greens surface to 100-150mm into the soil profile so that water will penetrate into areas of known hydrophobic(non-wetting) soil. We are due to put out the next application of wetting agent soon and I am hoping this will improve our chances of getting the product to the problem areas. With regular pencil tyning over the summer period we should also provide a better soil, air, water ratio which in turn will create a better environment for the browntop during stress periods.

We have been lucky to have received some good rainfall recently and that has taken some of the pressure off our watering system. For those of you that thought the course was drying out you would be right. This week the irrigation control system computer failed and we are trying to source a computer that will run our control program. This is not a simple as first thought because the program is relatively old, written in 32bit and not compatible with today's 64 bit machines. Hopefully this week we will be sorted and the irrigation system will be back up and running. In the meantime  I would like to ask the golfers for your patience and understanding as manual watering of greens could be needed during the day until we get the system fully operational.

Course Update

We have applied our spring application of slow release fertiliser to all our greens recently and in conjunction with that have started our program of spraying plant growth regulators (PGR) on a regular basis. PGR's are used every 3-4 weeks during the growing season to reduce the vertical leaf growth of the Browntop bentgrass and develop a tighter, denser turf surface with more growth in the root system. The end result is we can keep the mowers at a slightly higher cutting height and still maintain a good green speed. With this program in place, the regular light dusting of sand on the greens and better control of our soil moisture levels I expect our greens to be firm, smooth and slightly more challenging than has been the case during previous years.

The tees have recently been fertilised and we will be applying PGR's to these areas on a regular basis also.

With the approval of the management committee areas of unmown rough around the course has been trialled to try to create a bit more character and interest into the style of the course. These areas are now starting to become apparent and will probably need at least a full season to develop. With our short, tight layout and narrow fairways, areas of longer, drier wispy rough should provide a nice contrast to the irrigated fairways and also provide a more challenging shot when hitting to a green.  Our sandy, undulating fairways are more reminiscent of links type golf as compared to the flat, tree lined, parkland's style of golf course. With the the management of soil moisture on fairways and greens and the areas of unmown rough, the aim is to get the course playing more in the traditional way where shot selection is varied with low, running shots used when the situation arises. In most situations a well struck mid to short iron landing on the green should hold hitting from fairways, but in most cases they should run through the green when hit from the rough. As I mentioned, this is a trial to make the course more interesting for all levels of golfers and I can already see benefits for the higher handicap players, and the challenges for the lower handicap players. The extra run on the fairways means the higher handicappers are able to reach the par 4's easier, while that makes it more difficult for the lower handicappers to (a) stay on the fairway and (b) hold the greens from a shorter distance.
I would be keen to hear from anyone who has an opinion(positive or negative) on this trial and hope that everyone understands that it will take at least a full season to evaluate how it is working out. Personally my aim is to make the golf course more fun and interesting to play(we are that type of golf club).

Course Update

This week we received our first good  rainfall for some time (15mm). To put that into context our monthly totals for the last 3 months have been August -15mm, September- 16mm & October- 12mm.
The wetting agent that we have applied around the course has certainly been of benefit with the minimal rainfall. Areas that would normally dry out on mounds and high spots have retained moisture and reduced runoff when irrigation is applied.

Turf cover and colour maintained on the mounds.

With the drier weather watering with the irrigation system has become more regular and the readings that we are getting from our soil moisture meter have been helpful in monitoring when irrigation is needed. Even this early in the season I can see that we are using less water than would normally be the case. The greens in particular aren't getting watered as often as previous years, yet are still maintaining a good turf cover with minimal dry areas. At the moment greens are getting watered about once a week with 12-15mm of irrigation each time whereas other years it may have been about every second night with roughly 4-6 mm irrigation. At the moment hand watering hasn't been needed.

Turf cover on a historically dry area on a green.

We have completed all of our weed spraying on tees, fairways and all areas of the roughs. As is typical the slight discolouring and slowing down of growth has occurred but this should return to normal in the next couple of weeks.

From the photo above you can see the greens have maintained a good colour despite only receiving 10kg of Sulphate of Ammonia (the only nitrogen source) since February 2014. Our fertility program for the greens supplies the bulk of the nitrogen in spring and early autumn in the form of a slow release product that delivers about 70-80kg of actual N(Nitrogen) to the greens per year.  We try to keep the actual N total under 100kg annually. We are due to apply this fertiliser in the next couple of weeks and it will give us a full 3 months of even, sustained growth with no flush at the beginning. Combined with the fertilising of the greens we will be sand dusting lightly on a weekly basis to help with any thatch accumulation and also to keep the surfaces firm. Unfortunately we don't have a spinner style topdressing machine so we make do with a Vicon fertiliser spreader. It does an OK job but it is one item of machinery that I would dearly like to upgrade. I will post some photos of the old thing in a future post.

One of the more unusual occurrences this week was this mark on the surrounds at the back of 13 green.

Burn marks back of the 13th green

It turns out some neighbours nearby decided to let off their fireworks for Guy Fawkes night near our green. I definitely wouldn't have been amused if it was on the green!

Unmown areas on the course

We  are trialling a few areas on the course of unmown rough to try and achieve a bit more definition and character. These areas will have minimal irrigation and hopefully grow into wispy, sparse rough that doesn't cause problems with lost golf balls. With our tight layout we have to be careful where we place these areas and also be mindful of the wear from traffic that could occur.

With the drier weather that we have had the last couple of months these areas are starting to show and develop. Below are some photos of some areas.