Tom and all,
Those catch basins along the lake may have been environmentally motivated, or they may also have been by an architect who has "playability" in mind, and wanted to have a raised lip along the lake to help hold shots from trickling into the water.....
When I started, we also never put basins in the fairway. One problem with putting them in the rough is that it is easy to get a 'crowned" fairway, which rejects tee shots. IMHO, When tour pros got in the business, they felt the course should "help" golfers, by directing them back to the middle. (At least, that's where I first heard the idea, but have also heard it from the pay for play clients I have, who also want the design to speed play) The only way to have a valley fairway is to have basins in the middle.
Like Tom, I have an engineer do a master drainage study, but sometimes (like right now) we have to figure in the housing detention basins within our design in the first run to see how they affect golf. Then, we give it to an engineer to confirm our caluclations and make the final submittal. It can be complicated! We do all our own golf course drainage plans, but leave anything that may affect upstream or downstream to an engineer.
We use the rational formula to size pipes, and find the typical 4 and 6 inch pipe drainage systems some architects put in laughable. We never underestimate the power of water!
Like Tom Doak said about Bunker placement on another thread, you have to analyze each hole individually to determine if the architect made the right drainage choices. And, you really have to consider that there is not a right choice, just ones that favor one design criteria for another.
An example....
We are working on a project right now which has a flat, yet fully wooded site. The environmental permit restricted the trees we could take out. We also had compensitory flood storage issues as it is in a floodplain. Our only option was to put catch basins in the fairways. We had to lower many fairways to get the necessary comp. storage - as grading around trees would obviously kill them.
another example...
On a Desert Course, we put in a $600K drainage system. It had housing surrounding. When golf is within housing, drainage is also complicated. It's not the big storms, it's the little bits of nuisance water coming off every lot that is best picked up in a drainage structure before it ever reaches a cart path, much less the middle of the fairway. It's also expensive because the housing and street drainage can't - by law - be mixed with golf drainage. So our drainage had to go the "long way 'round" through the golf course to the one logical exit point. (OF course, when engineers need to cut drainage costs, they have no qualms about routing right across your golf course, and usually about a year after its open, requiring digging it up)
So, even in a desert climate, mucho drainage was required. I have said this before, but we treat fairways like an engineer would treat a road - we try to block surface water - especially major swales - from crossing it with a basin. Otherwise, the amount of water holding in a long swale makes mowing impossible.
I agree with Jeff McDowell in the fact that turf has different drainage needs (usally more) than a forest. When I started in this business, we tried for 2% surface pitch, and settled for 1%. That proved unnacceptable for drainage. Now, we try for 4% and settle for 3% - which I think is the minimum. If the natural slope is less than 3%, we grade it and add catch basins. If we happen to be sodding Zoysia, we know from experience that it holds water, and we shoot for 6% slopes, and settle for about 4.5%. I don't know why it holds water, it just does!
Lou,
After you commented on GSW a few months ago, I paid special attention to greenside areas for wetness while playing. I found a few, but just par for the course. I think the cause is an antiquated irrigation system, where the superintendent needs to overwater some areas to get them wet enough, and sometimes causes other areas to get too wet. We kept the existing paths, and the tie ins aren't as good as they would be if built as one unit.
Also, its not uncommon for any course to need to add a few drainage tiles and basins. Most supers expect to put in drainage every year. If we put in as little as possible to start, mostly to meet budgets, which are always constricted, then it follows that the superintendent must put in the remainder.
Keith -
Yes, we try to keep water as sheet flow, but it tends to concentrate at about 250-300 feet, no matter what! At that point, you need a basin, or erosion will delay grow in for months.