Mike,
Thank-you for the kind words.
Irrigation installation costs that are approaching $2+ million are not out of the ordinary and I am involved with many "normal systems" in the $1.5 mil range. These costs make it very difficult for the accounting types to justify the Return On Investment for this very important maintenance tool.
The first item you will need is to get, is your mapping and cost records in hand. All costs, people, parts, electricity, water costs, outside labor, pump repairs and manpower are only the beginning. Mapping should include every piece of paper that you have relating to the irrigation system, original plans, guess-builts, drainage, reconstruction plans and anything else that could be hit by a trencher. The more data you have the better the project will be.
After you have all of your records assembled, have a firm survey/GPS your golf course. It is very important to record items that can be identified from aerial imagery. Write down every item you would like recorded such as sprinklers, controllers, valves, golf features and other items that can be identified and located. GPS or any other type of survey equipment can not locate pipe or wires.
Once you have the GPS data find an electronic high resolution aerial with 1 meter or less pixel resolution. Use the GPS/survey data to "stretch and fit" the image to the known gps point features. This will allow you to start the real fun of recreating what is under the ground and may be encountered during the construction process. Be prepared to add all of your mapping notes to this image and it will take many tries to get it correct.
The GPS orthorectified image should be at a scale of 1"=100' or 1"=50' and should be reproduceable easily. We recomend our clients have a 11x17 color printer for recording notes for each golf hole that are sent to the person assembling the geodata.
These notes and "best guess-builts" will pay dividends at every stage of the process and I can not overstress their importance. Very few courses are willing to give the maintance department a $2,000,000 maintenance tool to make their life easier, so your preparation can not be taken lightly.
When you have the base existing information together then you should be thinking of your "equipment wish list", be sure to think of what results you are looking for this tool to produce and less on what features/whistles/bells you are looking for. Most owners are looking for the results the irrigation will produce and it is important to get into this mindset.
It is after this point you should be able to discuss openly with your irrigation designer of the courses' expectations. The driving factors of most systems will include: 1) how much will it cost? 2) how long will the course be under construction? and 3) how much of the course will be closed? Be prepared to discuss the Better/Faster/Cheaper theory. In reality you will only be able to choose 2.
A typical renovation of an existing irrigation system will take from 2 to 5 years to complete. This includes the time required to get "Wall Street" on board and buy into the idea, to when that final piece of sod is reinstalled. Be prepared for many town hall education meetings, writing columns in the newsletter, tours of other courses around you with decision makers, additional education of the board personell changes and find that one member who is repected by the other members to be your cheerleader.
The selection of equipment, design theories and contractor selection are items that will influence the success value of the project.
I would urge caution as you start this process as one "unwritten secret" of an irrigation renovation is the rate of failure as measured in loss of employment within 2 years after the project is complete. The figure is close to 1 in 3 of Superintendents who move within 2 years of completing
the project. There are many reasons ranging from very successful painless renovation to complete disasters caused by weather, bad contractors, not enough budget, lack of understanding or just plain bored because the action of construction is over. The 2 out of 3 who stay on will benefit from the hard work and pride that comes with doing the best possible work under all of the restrictions.
If you are interested in further discussions please send me a note.