We fired up our irrigation system at the same time we began our greens aeration to knock the sand down and to water in our fertilizer applications. We developed a couple of leaks in our system which required repair. Our system is 4 years old and for the most part is operating perfectly but from time to time there is some type of failure. There are many T's required in our system. Most T's used in golf operations were plastic but facilities over the last 10-20 years have been using on a more frequent basis Ductile Iron fittings. These fittings are superior in their strength and lack of failures(cracking) never occurs which are fairly common in PVC piping. The metal fittings have a rubber gasket at each exit that the pipe slips into and keeps it secure. The failures that we have seen in the last few days appear to have occurred from the fittings sinking which allows the pipe to blow out. Concrete or thrust blocks are put in place to reduce the potential for pipes to move but sometimes this can still occur which is what we believed happened over the last couple of weeks.
This is probably some of the most difficult work our staff has to complete during a day. Usually the soil is wet from the leak, they are trying to disturb as little area as possible, its a couple of feet deep in the ground and you have to dig carefully because of the wiring that runs along the route of the piping. But it is all in a day's work for our staff.
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| Asst. Skip and Russell working on our blow out next to #11 fairway with Lady keeping a close eye on the guys. |
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| Russ and Jason working behind the Sassafras tree near tee #2. |
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