Now that the rain has stopped, the maintenance staff starts to think more about watering golf course. When we start turning on sprinklers for the first time after winter we find heads that don’t come on or satellite controls that are not working properly. It takes about three weeks to troubleshoot the irrigation system and fix all of the issues we find. When we see a dry spot in May, it usually means that the sprinkler head is not working properly. Usually it is an electrical issue, either a gopher chewed through a wire or we find a fried electrical board in the control. We have been solving these problems for weeks and it looks like we have fixed all of them.
Another issue that comes up when we water more with the sprinklers is finding irrigation pipe leaks. We tend to find more leaks this time of year as the pipes begin to be used more. Fixing broken pipes is a common practice on a golf course.
The pipes are under a lot of pressure to move water from the pump house to the sprinklers around the course. If there is a weak area in a pipe it will break. When we see a wet spot and determine it is a leak we always make it a priority to fix it. We repair them right away so we don’t waste water or have a wet spot in the grass. Some repairs take only a few hours to fix while others may take days. Most times we don’t know the severity of the problem until we dig it up.
The irrigation system is the most important part of the golf course. Without it we could not grow grass in the summer so we spend a lot of time making sure it works properly. Last year we replaced our three main pumps that were showing signs of old age with new pumps. When it comes to something so essential to the quality of the golf course we try to be proactive in making repairs.
Sonoma Agronomy 