Water

Making my way out of the river after setting up the intake and making sure the foot valve was closed before priming the pump

 

If there is one issue that most turfgrass managers have in common, it is dealing with an irrigation system. We have all came into work in the morning to find a new water hazard or a huge crater in the fairway. It is definitely a love hate relationship, as when they are functioning properly they give us very little grief, but when the system is down, frustration kicks in usually followed by a colourful vocabulary.

The irrigation system at Dinosaur Trail is a combination of valve in head and block systems, with Toro, Rainbird, and Hunter heads. We have Hunter and Rainbird satellites, with the front nine being controlled by Stratus. We have two pump houses, the original for the front nine which is a single speed vertical turbine that is only used for backup, and the newer pump house built in 1993. In this pump house we have two VFD vertical turbine pumps controlled by an obsolete pump control system installed by AES out of Lethbridge. I am currently in the process of getting this pump control system updated as if it goes down, AES has told me they cannot repair the system, only replace it, which from time of breakdown would take 2 to 3 weeks. I believe in being proactive rather reactive so this is something I want to see get done before the end of May.

VFD Pumps with header and valve setup

River Pump

Original Pump

  

The unique part of the system is that both the front and back nine have there own dedicated pump, but with a special header and valve system, if one pump goes down the other can run both the front and back. The reason for this is that the back nine system runs at a higher pressure than the front due to the elevation changes in the back. So my plan is to fire up the front nine this upcoming week, deal with all the issues there and then focus on the back, where I know I am going to have lots to deal with back there.

The water source for the golf course is the Red Deer River which is pumped via a centrifugal pump on a movable skid, powered by a three phase 30 horsepower electric motor. The water is then fed through a 4 inch line that flows into our settling ponds and then flows over weirs to the holding pond. Before I started filling the ponds I had two breaks to fix as I tested the line for ice and breaks with a 2 inch trash pump prior to hooking up our main river pump. I also have a smaller 15 hp river pump for backup in case something happens to my main pump.

Mother Nature has definitely taken the pressure off getting water on the course with this recent moisture. Being located in a desert climate, I need to have my irrigation system running and functioning optimally. I know there are going to be some long tough days ahead digging holes and fixing problems, but in the end it will all work out, its only grass!

Changes

Alot of action has been going on the last two weeks out on the course at Dinosaur Trail. The most noticeable being the implimentation of our tree management plan. Two weeks ago I walked the course and marked out trees and or limbs that I thought should be removed due to a few issues. These being playability, agronomic impact, and safety . When the front nine was built they decided to use the fast growing Northwest Poplar to line the course. A common problem that occurs is that a tree mangement plan is not implimented soon enough to deal with these problematic trees. Many of the trees on the front nine have exceeded their lifespan by over 10 years and their shallow roots cause issues on all playing surfaces. As well they have started to rot from the inside out and pose a safety issue as it is not uncommon to see massive limbs breaking off after only a moderate wind.

Video of the tree on #7 coming down

The Tree was 3'6" in diameter

With the help of an arbourist and a man lift we removed the 2nd largest tree on the property, and 70 to 80 limbs on other trees. I could have removed alot more, but I had to remember that we would be responsible for all cleanup as well. A huge thanks goes out to Lyle Anderson, for volunteering his time, labour, fuel, and trailer to remove all of the tree material from the golf course. Without him we would still be trying to cleanup the tree debris.

Lyle, Joel, and Dean cleaning up the trees

A crack in the tree very close to the base

Removing and old storage tank

As far as other changes at the course, I have started to clean up the shop yard, removing old broken down vehicles and storage tanks that were used in the past. We have added a sea- can for fertilizer storage and have put new tee markers into use on the back nine that utilize iron ore rock found on the course. Due to the minimal number (23) and smaller sized bunkers on the course I have switched to hand raking the bunkers instead of using a mechanical trap rake. Finally we will begin to impliment a foliar feeding program and the use of growth regulators, something that has not been used on the course in the past.

The addition of our sea-can

The fertilizer I inherited, most of it is 2 to 3 years old

New Back Nine tee markers

Hope everyone has a great Easter Sunday and I think we are in for a great finish at the Masters.