Building the Greens

[Bill Gayne]

Below are three pictures from
http://www.medalistgolfinc.com/current/ne/ne.html

What are they doing and why? What's all of this equipment and tracewire?





Installing tracewire with the drainpipe in the green

[Michael Dugger]

What are they doing and why? What's all of this equipment and tracewire?

Spending a bunch of money because they can

[Jeff_Mingay]

The guy in the second photo looks like he's riggin' a bomb  

[Joe Hancock]

Bill,

The top pic looks like they have flagged out positions and are taking GPS readings for mapping the contours of the green.

The second pic is perhaps where they are preparing to lay a wire in the trenchlines to be able to "trace" with electronics at a later date.

The third picture appears to be tubing that will carry water as a method of regulating the soil temprature of the green, similar to the geothermal systems installed in the floors of many new homes and buildings now. You can see where the tubing is tied into a manifold in the lower section of the picture.

Joe

[Joe Hancock]

Jeff,

No worries, it's just a Scotchlok sealer protecting a splice.....

Or, a bomb....

Joe

[Tyler Kearns]

Bill,

Trace wire is often used along the perimeter of greens in order to alleviate the shrinkage of greens. It allows superintendents to be able to locate the designed perimeter of the greens, making areas lost over the years much easier to re-capture.

TK

[George_Bahto]

TOM RIDGE    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! where are you?

[Bill Gayne]

Joe and Tyler,

Thanks for the replies. If I tried to put the pictures in construction order: The third picture is early in the process of building the green. Then the appropiate mix of materials is laid over the tubing and the green is shaped using GPS (the first picture) to the architect's specs. The next step would be the second picture. Then the green is ready for seeding?

Thanks

[Michael_Burrows]

They still have to add more greens mix sand or else when you aerified greens you would have a big problem. USGA spec's call for 12 to 14 inches of greens mix with 4 inches of pee gravel under the greens mix. Some greens have a choker layer but I won't get into all that. I recently help build a putting green at work and it's amazing how much time and work it takes to build green. You have to worry about how the water is going to drain,not over lapping the greens mix sand with the sand/dirt that is outside the green or else water will not move through the soil and then you get black layer and other other things that drive superintendents mad, you have to dig a ditch for your water line, lay the pipe for your water line to the green, you have to connect this water line to some other source of water so you have to dig up more dirt, cut and connect the new pipe to the existing water source, then you have to run wire and pipe for sprinkers, then you have the placement of sprinkers so that way you get good coverage when watering, after all that is down you still have to applying chemicals to kill any weeds that be in the greens mix sand before seeding, then seeding and fertilizing, watering and so one. You really have to see it to fully understand every little step.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

I would suggest they are either installing heating and cooling lines or they are going to irrigate from the bottom up.

[ForkaB]

Those kids look too young to be playing with explosives, much less building greens!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Joe Hancock,

I believe that ANGC did this years ago.

My question is:

How damaging is a rupture.

Would it ruin the subsurface structure before it manifested itself at the surface.

What's the primary purpose of the system, cooling or heating ?

Due to the lack of light, I can't detect shadows and the impact of the trees to the left of the green.

[Bill Gayne]

All, thanks for the replies. I had no idea of the technology that's going into building greens.

Dick, how would bottom up irrigation get to the root of the grass?

Thanks

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill Gayne,

Don't roots seek water ?

[Bill Gayne]

Pat, yes roots do seek water. I probably should have asked the question better.

The basis of the question is Michael Burrows post,

"USGA spec's call for 12 to 14 inches of greens mix with 4 inches of pee gravel under the greens mix."

If you have 14-16 inches of material above the irrigation. The roots may eventually get to the bottom up irrigation. Why do bottom up instead of top down or is it necessary to do both? The top down will eventually get the roots to the bottom up.

[Mike Nuzzo]

That's not irrigation, and it's not "normal".
None of those pictures are "normal".

[Pat Brockwell]

I have seen subsurface irrigation systems, three types involving tubing (Toro and Netafim) and one with large plastic pans, name escapes me.  That picture is not of any of those systems.  The subsurface systems work but did require overhead spray to establish in Las Cruces NM.  The crucial depth for me would be 8", the depth of a cup cutter.  You got me on all that red wire.

[Joe Hancock]

Pat,

First, I have never installed or used a heating/ cooling system on(in?) a golf green. So, here are my answers, which may be incorrect:

I don't think that a heating/ cooling system would be under a lot of pressure, probably just enough to create flow to distribute the liquid through the tubing. I would hope the system would be  a closed loop, making leak detection fairly easy. Locating the leak might be more difficult, however. I suppose the flow would have to be great enough to make for consistent soil tempratures. That would also help explain the number of "zones" off the manifold.

The primary purpose of that system would probably be to maintain a cool season grass in a warm season or transition zone climate. Bentgrass isn't particularly fond of high tempratures and humidities, but is almost always the preferred grass on greens. This expensive system would be a means to an end, I suppose.

Once again, I have no experience with it, just have read of such systems and have a basic understanding of the how's and why's.

I hope I've helped,

Joe

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill Gayne,

I would "guess" that climates where evaporation and the cost of water might be a problem, that reverse irrigation systems might have their niche.

It certainly makes for interesting study.

I'd like to know exactly how the green is spec'ed out.

Based on the long sleeve shirts and vegatation, it doesn't seem like a tropical location, which fascinates me even more.

[ChasLawler]

Bill Gayne,

I would "guess" that climates where evaporation and the cost of water might be a problem, that reverse irrigation systems might have their niche.

It certainly makes for interesting study.

I'd like to know exactly how the green is spec'ed out.

Based on the long sleeve shirts and vegatation, it doesn't seem like a tropical location, which fascinates me even more.

I believe the photos are from The Sea Island Golf Club in GA.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

A few years ago, experiments were done irrigating putting greens from the bottom up. I believe the buzz work was "wick system"
In that system, there was no gravel blanket and  no herriing bone style tile drainage.
The main idea was to conserve H2o by eliminating some of the evaporation factor.
The general idea was to introduce enough H2o for it to reach the rootzone.
The problem was if it rained a lot, the wick system green had a problem ridding itself of the excess H2o
I don't have Hurdzans' book handy, but I think he mentions this system in it.

Dick

[Bill Gayne]

The first two pictures are from the new Frederica Township Golf Club being built for the Sea Island Company. Based on a recent mailing that I've received from Sea Island I think it's complete and ready for play.

The third picture is work done at The Standard Club in Atlanta.