It is Getting Hot, Time to Irrigate

We are now entering the heat of the summer when greens need the most water. Normally putting greens receive most of the its water needs during morning maintenance. However, there are some days when greens require supplemental afternoon irrigation during the hottest period of the day.

Below is a United States Golf Association (USGA) video on why we irrigate in the afternoon, several techniques employed to irrigate a green and proper golfer etiquette during times of afternoon handwatering.

The boom truck arrives at Ford.




The roof of the pump house is removed.

Straps are fastened to the pump.
Pump begins to be extracted.

Pump being lifted out of structure.





The trouble... large cracks in the pump itself.

A closer look at the cracks in the pump.

Divers preparing to dive to inspect pumps.

The divers found our basket filter for the pumps in terrible condition. They are suppose to have a screen around them to prevent debris and trash from getting in the pumps and causing damage.
This is the type of screening material that should be installed on the baskets. This material is made of stainless steel.

Here you can see that the metal mesh material made of galvanized screening is completely dissolved... rendering this filter useless.

Notice here, the original hardware used to fasten the basket filter to the pump was made of stainless steel and is in great shape. The club most likely saved $300 on basket filters years ago by not having them constructed in stainless steel.

Some examples of bulkhead damage.

#2 bulkhead damage.

#7 bulkhead damage. You can see here the turf just collapses in a hole.

#7 bulkhead damage.

An example of suffering turfgrass from having the irrigation system down.

No irrigation + hot weather = bad grass.