[Tommy Williamsen]

Actually, I have wanted to start this thread for a couple of years.  but, I remembered it when I was playing and not when I was at the computer.  

Anyway, when we had the drought here in DC a couple of years ago, the superintendent mentioned that our sprinkler heads do not water the grass properly.  He said that they were designed to supplement rain water not be its main source.  He went on to say that sprinkler heads in the desert are constructed differently because they are the only source of water for the grass.

I have no reason to doubt his word, but how do the sprinkler head differ?

[kevinT]

Tommy,

He may have meant the irrigation system as a whole and not he heads themselves.  However, he is right!  You can never replace "mother nature".  With the different grass types comes different water requirements.  Most irrigation systems designed today are triple row.  Which is a row down the center of the fairway and two rows on the outside that water the rough and the fairway (depending on how wide the fairway is).  If you club or course has the money to spend and want to really micro manage your water needs you would go with a "5 row system".  This would give you your triple row for fairways only.  The outside rows of the triple row would be half circle and water the fairway only.  Next to the same heads on the outside rows where the fairway heads are would be other heads that would be part circle again and only water the rough.  This is a very expensive way to go but the best for playablility and for water usage.  

For example if you had a dry area in the rough but not in the fairway you would be able to turn on the heads that are for the rough only where your dry area is located.  Where most irrigation systems today you would be watering both the fairway and rough even though the fairway does not need the water.  Now if your staffing levels are of a good size then you would be hand watering these areas but not all maintenance staffs at clubs are large enough to do so with the demands that are placed on playing conditions.  How this helps ou better understand.

Kevin

[Tommy Williamsen]

Kevin, thanks.  I have never seen, at least to my knowledg, a five row irrigation system.  Are there really little differences in the sprinkerl heads?

[Don_Mahaffey]

Tommy,
The ideal of defining a modern irrigation system based on the # of rows just doesn't work anymore. Systems aren't really designed anymore with a set # of rows, as much as they are designed with a triangular spacing in mind, and then it's just a matter of how much you want to irrigate. In arid climates the course is usually lined with perimeter heads and in a wetter climate you may only irrigate fairways, or just the primary rough. Most modern systems have single head control which means once you designate the head as a green, tee, fwy, or rough...or anything else you want to call it, you can them build a program by adding other heads from similar areas on the golf course. So you could have all the fwy heads in a fwy program....and all your rough heads grouped together and on and on. You then could irrigate the fairways every other night and the roughs once a week or anything else you wanted to do. You could build a program for each hole, each green...it's all a matter of how intricate you want to get. But, no matter how many programs you build, the key to a well irrigated golf course is making the daily adjustments to the programming based on the conditions on the course. The knock against modern systems that we sometimes read here on GCA is once the Supt sets up the computer he just leaves it alone and you end up with a wet golf course. I can say this; I've never seen a Supt that I know, just set up the programming and then not touch it. Everyone I know does make regular adjustments based on weather and course conditions. I'd like to add that IMO, it takes about 2 years experience on the same course before I feel like I can really get the system down pat.

Golf sprinkler heads are a lot more alike then they are different. Almost all are made by either Toro or Rainbird, although John Deere has entered the irrigation arena, but I don't expect JD to be mush of a player for a few years.

[Wayne_Kozun]

...but I don't expect JD to be mush of a player for a few years.

Interesting Freudian slip, or was it?

[JSlonis]

Kevin, thanks.  I have never seen, at least to my knowledg, a five row irrigation system.  Are there really little differences in the sprinkerl heads?

At my home club Tavistock CC, we installed a new 5 row irrigation system last year in preparation for our restoration project.  There is a sprinkler in the middle of the fairway and two more on each side, right next to one another,adjacent to the edge of the rough/1st cut.  The inside head takes care of the fairway and the outside head is designated to water the rough areas.  

There are different heads for the system.  For example, around the bunker surrounds, we have special "spray" type heads that just take care of the bunker edges.

So far, the system has worked perfectly.  It really helped with the grow in phase of the project and has also allowed our Supt. to really tailor our irrigation use going forward.  Our old system was quite old and very inefficient.  

[Jeff_Brauer]

Tommy,

There are different brands and models of sprinkler heads, and each can be fitted with different nozzles to adjust spray length and pressure.  There are none that I know designed for the needs of differing climates.

As Don has alluded, I believe your super was talking about spacing and pressure issues, because out west, sprinkler systems are generally designed with tighter spacing, perhaps lower angle of throw, and other items to tune the system to the climatic needs.

He probably just had an old system, and was pining for a new one that was more water efficient, better triangular spacing, etc. In short, he needed a better design and not better sprinklers.

[Kyle Harris]

With the advent of the Toro 850 series, with different nozzles and adjustable angle on each individual head, it's awful hard not to be able to fine tune a head once it's in the ground.

As echoed before, the super is probably lamenting an outdated or poorly designed system.

Take a look around the greens... and think of how the water is dispersed from the head. Keep in mind that the throw of the head will hit the head colinear to it on the green, usually a distance of 75 feet or so, depending on your system.

Some questions to ask:

In order for the head to cover the whole green, how much water must thrown off into the rough or approach?

For outer heads, how much water must be thrown on the green to reach all the areas around the green.

A lot of this is subservient to the architecture and some is unavoidable, but a good design will minimize overlap in such areas.

[Craig Sweet]

Don, one of the biggest problem we face when irrigating is time...we're a busy muni, and as you know it remains light out here in the intermountain area until close to 10pm...we can't begin to do too much irrigating until most play is completed in the evenings...in order to irrigate everything, and be finished by 7am (golfers are on the course by 6am now) requires a lot of juggling of irrigation times, greens, fairways, etc, on the computer...for example, adding a few minutes to the run time on the greens might mean a set of fairway heads kick in later...and then you have sprinklers going while golfers are on the course, or maintenance is trying to get out ahead of the crowds and mow....

[Don_Mahaffey]

Craig,
I had the same problem in Bend. The after work golfers played until 9:30 pm and the morning crew wanted to tee off at 6:30 am.
What I did was build a program for each hole and I'd start irrigating #1 at 8:00 PM, #2 at 8:20....and right on down to 18. The proshop knew the problem and didn't send anyone out off of #1 after 8:00pm unless they wanted to play around the sprinklers. The last holes to water were always 16, 17 & 18 and they were usually finished by 8:30 am.

[Ray Richard]

When you discuss sprinkler head coverage you also need to consider the following-you are trying to uniformly water a square/grid form with a group of circular patterns. These circular patterns are subject to many efficiency impacts such as pump pressure cycling, wind, dirt in the system, sprinkler programming, proper nozzle selection and proper piping design.
I would say that when you see a course with a "wall to wall" system in place you have a superintendent who has his hands full watching all of these issues. These individuals have a collection of "bells and whistles" such as weather stations, evaporation analysis and computer programs.These management tools assist the superintendent greatly, but nothing beats field observation.The slightest irrigation inefficiency needs to be dealt with quickly.
I have seen some great turf with some bad irrigation systems, but the superintendent is spending too much time tweaking the system. I think a properly managed new system is a great investment in the long run.

[Kyle Harris]

...and to think at Huntingdon Valley they have an extremely playable golf course with single row Toro 690 heads down the middle of each fairway.

[Jerry Kluger]

Question please:  As sprinkler heads have evolved are there courses where just the heads have been changed, which has allowed them to do more with the existing system?

[Kyle Harris]

Question please:  As sprinkler heads have evolved are there courses where just the heads have been changed, which has allowed them to do more with the existing system?

Most definitely.

[Ray Richard]

If the existing piping is of in good condition, you can replace your old sprinklers with  new sprinklers and connection piping (swing joints). You need to be sure the pressure requirements of the new sprinklers are workable with your pipe/pump capacity.

This type of retrofit is usually done on systems that are under 20-30 years old. The limiting factor is the integrity of the pipe. If its old, pre-PVC pipe,than the upgrade might be complicated by plenty of "frozen fittings" that can really be costly to fix. If its PVC than check out the pipe to be sure that no inherent efficiency issues exist.

 Also don't underestimate the importance of the control wires. Wires installed underground can degrade over time. Wireless sprinkler heads are an option on some courses.

 A sprinkler upgrade is a temporary measure at best, its a matter of time before the old system configuration will be outdated, necessitating a complete system redo. You can actually install a completly new system, while keeping the old system operational, and connect the new system quickly at some point.

[Craig Sweet]

We've been retro fitting our irrigation, not on purpose, but as heads fail...this winter the unusual freeze, thaw, freeze, rain, thaw, set up a situation where stading water in the fairways drained into the heads, and in many cases where we had older heads the water went back into the line...thus causing some major breaks this spring...over 70 to be exact...requiring lots of new PVC and swing joints...an unplanned for retro fit..

Recently, we did a distribution test on a green using our existing heads, then dug up and replaced the heads with new ones from a different company and ran the test again...we're angling for a whole new irrigation system but while we wait for the board to approve a $1.5 million project, we're trying some alternatives...

[Steve Lang]

 

Aren't there backflow preventers installed in these systems?

[Craig Sweet]

Newer heads have check valves...we have older Buckner heads and they have no check valves....

I believe a new head...a Rainbird 51dr for example cost about $150...we replace the older heads as they fail, but the cost of new limits how many we can replace each year....

[Greg Cameron]

Craig,I might suggest 1.5 inch dump/flush/drian valves,in fairway loops at least,time fighting the water while repairing/flushing minimized,handy things....Greg

[Craig Sweet]

Greg, in some cases we're able to isolate hole by hole...but more likely it will be section by section and when we shut valves for one hole we shut down water for several holes...

The problem this winter was large ponds of standing water sitting on frozen turf....it had only one place to go and that was down the sprinkler can and with those old heads there was nothing to stop it from backing up into the lateral line....we had lots of 20ft sticks of PVC to replace....joint to joint, and sometimes it cracked right past the joint.

[Greg Cameron]

Craig,its a shame  regarding lateral isolation,but think and budget long term,install a few valves every year ,put in some drains to prevent same problem next year, slow but sure improvement to     keep the irritation problems to a minimuim.are you still repairing?
Some trade magazines have rebuilt toro and rainbird heads for sale advertisements for tight budgets.....Greg

[Craig Sweet]

Greg..up until this winter we were under the assumption that we would be installing a new system with the engineer/architect/bid process getting underway later this year...however, a couple of newer board memebrs started dragging their feet and questioning the need for a new system....

In the meantime we had a rough spring....we initiated the system on April 1st and immediately had breaks...they escalated through April into May...at first the finger of blame was pointed at the maintinence crew..."looks like someone did a lousy job of blowing out the system last fall" kind of talk...we quickly laid that to rest and got the board to see it was the age of the exisiting system (25 years old and some of the PVC sat around for 2 years before it was put in the ground) and the old style heads etc...

So now we are doing what we can to keep her going...no major retro-fitting and upgrading...its a new system or else.

[Jerry Kluger]

Could you guys give your opinion of when it is okay to water at dusk or overnight and when it isn't - Thanks

[Larry_Rodgers]

Dusk and first light are times when wind is minimal and a time when the most important areas should be irrigated to insure the best possible coverage.

I am seeing many comments on run times being too long, this is a problem with the courses searching for deep and infrequent irrigation practices. Some systems will allow the manager to alternate cycles for areas of the course and takes some major effort to stay ahead of changing weather patterns.

[Craig Sweet]

We water between 9:30pm and 7am..,I think we're doing about 20-25 minutes per set depending on whether it's a green or fairway. I think the course is pretty wet at 6:30 in the morning...a few spots in the fairway will actually have standing water...

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