The fairway renovations went well, recovery is already well underway with all outcomes achieved. We are finishing off fertilising the fairways balancing the manual irrigation system with demand and once complete will have the fairways in good condition leading into the summer months.  

One issue I need to address is the appearance of dry areas (dry patch ) on the back 9 fairways, this is not due to the coring but as a result of the manual irrigation system and set speed pumps with antiquated piping leading to inefficient irrigation. 



While coring does drop the moisture levels temporarily,  it is the less than efficient irrigation system on the back 9 which can not quickly replace that moisture loss that results in these dry areas whenever we carry out works such as renovations, large scale spraying or any maintenance requiring follow up irrigation. 
The combination of the manual system, set speed pumps and small old weak pipping in places mean we need to shut off the entire system until all fairways are complete rather than irrigating each fairway or sections individually and when we do irrigate it takes some 16 hours to cover the large area.  This often means some areas of the fairways are not irrigated for up to a week leading to these dry areas, compounded more so where coverage is insufficient requiring hoses to water the "gaps" of coverage missed areas.
The set speed pumps output a given volume regardless of demand, the smaller older pipes in sections across the course are week points that if we continue to use the system when a section of the course cannot be irrigated for any reason  we risk a pressure build in these areas with the likely outcome of breaks and further down time. 

Good news is this is only temporary, it may take a few weeks but once the irrigation cycles are being routinely completed with a huge draw on labor, recovery will be swift and we can reap the positive longer term benefits from these very important works. 

Thank you and Happy  Hooking     

Popular posts from this blog

November 2023

Saltene and Couch Grass

Hydraulic Oil Leak