Irrigating Dry Hot Spots

Watering those small, troubling dry hot spots mostly in bluegrass, ryegrass, fescue and Poa annua roughs can be done easily without dragging hoses, hand watering or running larger diameter sprinklers that overwater the surroundings. The gear train of the Toro 830S & 860S sprinkler heads are removed. A 1-inch Ed Bickel (Riverside, Calif.) Donut ($15), with a 1-inch by ¾-inch reducer and ¾-inch nipple attached to a Hunter I-20 ($15) sprinkler head, with a built-in manual pressure regulator, is installed. A blue 4.0 GPM nozzle, which throws 35 to 40 feet, is used or a LA 4.5 PGM low trajectory nozzle, which throws 30 to 35 feet for windy days and on hillsides. A flag key or multi-manual program is used to control the watering times. It takes about four minutes to modify and install. Brandon Carter, former superintendent at Colorado National Golf Club, and Kollin Vandersluis, former assistant, came up with this idea during the drought of 2012. Vandersluis is now superintendent at The Country Club at Woodmoor in Monument, Colo.

Dual Boomless Spray Nozzles

Superintendents Chris Tritabaugh, Jeff Johnson and David Phipps inspired this concept. John T. Kelly, Jr., superintendent at The Kittansett Club (Mass.), modified the idea to fit his club’s needs spraying 60-plus mounds and large rocks protruding in native areas. The 2002 Cushman sprayer holds 175 gallons and head mechanic Carl Rose added the 2-inch and 1 ½-inch square tubing framework ($250) and a Cox electric hose reel ($550) with 100 feet of 5/8 inch, 200 PSI hose ($250) when the sprayer was new. Two individually controllable Greenleaf Boomless #85TD Nozzles ($300 each) mounted at a 42-inch height each with a 16-foot swath were added. The GPM flow can vary from 7.5 GPM at 30 PSI up to 10.4 GPM at 60 PSI. The original lower, middle spray boom, with three Greenleaf TDXL11010 calibrated at 1.5 GPM, is still used in primary rough and along cart paths. The modification took about three days on and off.