Are irrigation systems the biggest impediments in recapturing greens ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mike,

Most of the head locations were established 40 years ago.
More than just sprinkler heads clutter some areas.

The shame is that most of the heads are in these concave wings that tend to rise up at the corners of the greens, which just happen to be fantastic areas for hole locations or nearby hole locations.  Those areas also place a premium on recovery should you miss them.

The recapture of these areas would add greatly to the golfing experience on these courses.

At a time when all too many clubs are focused on building tees to lengthen the course, this area is overlooked in terms of getting the golfing bang for the buck.

What's the largest or longest pop-up head in use ?
It would seem that the ideal solution would be to take the heads off of the foot pad, if they could be located nearby and popped up to an elevation equivalent to their current site, prior to begining their cycle.

Donnie Beck,

Using cores that used to be discarded is a great way to insure continuity of the playing conditions when work is undertaken.

I don't remember this practice being employed ten years ago.
When did you first hear about it or use it ?

[Mike Benham]

What's the largest or longest pop-up head in use ?

Having once worked in the turf irrigation industry, I happen to know of a long-distance head that I have yet to see used in the golf industry.

Across the pond, a company has developed the use of an agriculture irrigation gun, used in a pop-up function outside of the playing service which allows for no sprinklers on the turf for the football or hockey pitches.



One Big Sprinkler

[Steve Curry]

I have 2 greens that I have expanded and the old irrigation is in places now 8-10 feet into the green.  I have mowed these areas down and repeatedly aerated and top-dressed.  It is a long and tedious process to get them to match up and the irrigation change over can be a project if the old was installed very close to the shrunken surfaces.  I wouldn't call it a piece of cake.

Steve

[RBlair]

I would say the type of grass you are dealing with is the biggest issues.  Heads are easy to move around, but you can not have the lines under the putting surface that is for sure.  If you have a putting surface built to USGA spec and are growing bermuda surrounds good look on pushing your greens edges back out.  I often hear from courses in northern climates that can expand there putting surfaces by using cores from aerifiaction or something along those lines.  In my case once the bermuda grass has grown into the mix zone there is about no possible way to return the areas to putting surface.  I have seen some down in the past, but it involved removing the entire mix zone in the contamined area to get bentgrass back again.  I would say as with most things it deals with the area of the country you are in.