Slides I used to teach about the irrigation system on a golf course. These are just the basic knowledge. Would be good to share knowledge. Do comment to add or to correct me if I'm wrong.
2. Intro
Water is 80 -85% of grass plant
Important to maintain quality golf.
All greens and most tees are irrigated
Good golf courses will irrigate fairway some even
roughs.
3.
4. Types of irrigation
1. Central control automatic irrigation system
2. Stand-alone control automatic irrigation system
3. Stand-alone control non-automatic
4. Manually operated valves
5. Manual Quick Coupler Valves (QCV)
5. Components
1. Water source
2. Pump station
3. Water distribution pipes (plus valves)
4. Control valves
5. Control lines (plus controller)
6. Sprinkler heads
6. Why irrigation important
Important practice
Determines health of plant
Too much / too little is problem
Dry out the course / makes the course soggy
Algae
Diseases
Life or death
Affects play (long or short)
8. Water source
Lake, pond – usually man-made
Usually fed by drainage system
Sometimes water source is well (underground water) 6 –
700 metres deep. Pumped into reservoir 1st.
Rarely river because water quality issues
18 hole Golf course require 2,000 gallons per minute of
water flow rate.
Caution re particulate matter such as algae, aquatic
weeds, sand, debris, fish, frogs, and snails.
Effluent water can be used
9. Particulate materials
Organic materials – leaves, sticks, algae etc is problem
Use strainers to prevent
Sand cause problems in whole irrigation system – slow
water, erode, wear and tear faster
Use sand separator to prevent
Introduced contaminates into the system: when repair
of leaking pipes or initial installation
More care and flushing after repair is the solution.
10. Automatic irrigation system
Is essentially fixed sprinklers automatically activated
by control valves at times preset on a controller.
The times may be from beginning to finish – full
automatic
Or beginning is manual activated and ending is at
times preset.
Maybe centrally controlled
Or on a few ‘satellites’ which are ‘stand-alone’
11. Pump station
Draw water from source
Release water into system as needed
Pump house
Wet-well / pit
Sometimes pump-house over the source
12. Water distribution system
Pipe – permanently underground
Large pipes at station and became smaller and smaller
Pressure rating – estimated maximum pressure water
in pipe that pipe won’t fail.
PVC – poly vinyl chloride
PE – poly ethylene. Cheaper than PVC but weaker.
GI – galvanized iron
13. Control Valves
Valves – to release water either into lines or into valves.
Manually open or closing
Or remotely by
Hydraulic switches
Electrically operated solenoid
Three important places
At distribution lines
At sprinklers
At pump station
14. Control valve
Delivery to sprinkler
Valve-in-head (VIH)
Block system
Valve at distribution lines
Gate valves / isolation valves
Drain valves – to drain a line
Pressure-relief valves
Air-valves / vacuum-relief valve
Valve at pump station
Foot valve – at intake pipe
Discharge valve
A check valve
16. Controller
Vital component – starts and stops the valves
Automatic system – needs a clock
One controller has many stations.
One station is one valve.
One valve is one sprinkler (VIH) or many (block)
May be controlled via Central Controller
Or on its own – Stand-alone Satellite controller
17. Sprinkler heads
Many types: Fixed spray, pop-up, bubblers, strip,
rotary.
Golf course is rotary and pop-up
Mostly 360 degrees turn.
20. Fertigation
Chemical injected into irrigation system
Proportioner pump
Adjust rates
Key to succeed is uniform application
Must remember about effect of chemical on system!
21. Operation
No perfect irrigation system
Needs expertise to operate
Most golf courses are over-irrigated (at least greens
are)
The pressure to get soft greens and green, lush grass
Bad practice or no knowledge by Supt
Limitation s or bad design of irrigation system
22. operation
Too often irrigation is by habit or by calendar
Should be according to turfgrass needs. Assess :
soil moisture levels at key sites
Temperature, humidity
Cloud cover
Wind conditions
ET rate
Rainfall over next few days.
then only decide to water or not to water
23. When to irrigate
By observing water status
1. in turf by:
Foot printing technique
Signs of actual wilt
2. In soil by:
Soil probe 8 inch deep at various locations
Tensiometer to measure soil moisture
Preferably early morning
24. When to irrigate
Don’t water in afternoon because
1. Bad distribution due to high winds
2. Water loss due to evaporation
3. Inconvenience to golfers
4. Leaf and soil moist easier to get infected plus algae
25. syringing
Very light, mid-day watering
To relief stress due to wilt or heat.
Maybe even 2x a day.
Must be visual inspection before decide
Sprinkler front of green takes twice the time to make a full turn. Sprinkler at background took too long to come to full pressure. Grass was new planted and cannot tolerate heat stress.