Mark Em Before You Lose Em

As part of the ongoing maintenance of the golf course and irrigation system we must keep all of our components readily identified. Needless to say this is a huge under taking for the newly installed irrigation system.

Throughout the growing season the Bluegrass rough moves laterally and can quickly grow over valve boxes that are ten inches in diameter.  This would become problematic if the box became completely grown over and we were unable to quickly locate it in the case of an emergency. Generally we will only have to edge around the boxes once a season to them them easily identifiable. 

If we were to ever lose track of a critical component we could always refer back to the GPS coordinates to find the item, but that would be the last choice in the case of an emergency.

Pressure Recorder

One of the most important tools we can use to monitor the operation of the irrigation system is the use of pressure recorders.

These recording devices monitor the pressure of the system durring actual flow events.  This is very similar to how an EKG monitors a person heart and helps diagnose potential problem before they occur. We will be using this information to fine tune the overall operation of the system and closely monitor the pressures throughout the system.

These devices will be placed throughout the golf course, so when you come across one of them please do not touch or remove them.

Turf Mystery Solved

The other day while driving around I noticed a couple areas on the golf course that distinctive rectangular areas of turf damaged. At first I though it was odd and was not sure what caused the damage but upon further investigation the mystery was solved.

It turned out the day before on a warm day with temperatures in the 80's my irrigation tech was working on some of the bunker pop up zones.  These zones are controlled by an electric valve contained in a valve box that had the lids removed during the servicing. The warm temperatures and intense sunlight heated up the plastic lid that was laying on the grass and burnt the turf underneath.


Fortunately only the leaf tips were damaged and the turf is already growing its way out of the injury. It goes to show you that the turf can be damaged in many different ways several of which are not expected.

What Is The Yellow Grass In The Fairways?

Throughout the fairways there are many areas that are off color and under stress, this is an intended effect from the use of herbicide that targets Poa Annua.

The fairways have received successive applications of Velocity to help control the Poa populations and this is what has caused the visible signs of turf injury. Currently the Poa is not dead, but it is under severe stress and the plant is in shut down mode which will help the desired Bentgrass to out compete it for space in the fairways.

We will be backing down the future applications so that unacceptable turf discoloration does not persist into the upcoming Member/Guest tournament in a few weeks.