Out with the old

Pushing 20 years old, the irrigation system at Val Halla Golf and Recreation Center in Cumberland, Maine, had finally run its course.

For about six years, the system, with a single row in the fairways and full circle heads at the greens and tees, routinely experienced anywhere from 50 to more than 100 pipe breaks per year. The roughly 200 Buckner brass-impact heads were worn down with age and needed daily adjustments. The system’s three-pump station was down to just one working pump, which superintendent Toby Young or one of his crew members would have to manually turn on and off everyday at 3 a.m.

“We were at the point where we had to train anyone and everyone how to do repairs,” says Young, who operates the course with an annual maintenance budget of $450,000. “The more and more manpower it took to fix all of these problems outweighed the payments for a new system.”

While the need for a new system at the 18-hole municipal golf course was clear, the main problem standing in Young’s way was that the city of Cumberland still had two year’s worth of payments left on the old system.

But with repairs costing anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 per year, Val Halla’s board and membership agreed that purchasing a new system was the most cost efficient decision and the complete renovation began in fall 2008. “By this time, the approval process only took about a month and a half,” Young says. “This issue had been on the front burner for many years.”

While “biting the bullet” and taking on the additional payment, the golf course came up with various ways to increase revenue and cover the new expense. For example, the public facility, which also has a membership program, increased membership dues by about $100 per year. “Multiplied by 500 members, that gives us an extra $50,000 to work with, or about what the bond payment is for the new system,” Young says.

Before presenting his recommendation to the board, Young researched two irrigation manufacturers – Rain Bird and Toro. After conducting numerous tests and demonstrations, Young found both systems adequate for his needs. However, one of his biggest concerns was parts availability to the rural town of Cumberland. With frost being a common issue in the chilly New England state, Young wanted to be prepared should any pipe breakages or other problems arise. Through his research, Young found more local distributors of Rain Bird parts than of any other manufacturer.

“Easy parts availability saves the condition of the course more than anything,” he says. “Not being able to get water to certain areas of the course is like not being able to get blood to certain parts of the body. It doesn’t take long before you see the adverse effects.”

Word of mouth also played a huge role in Young’s decision. Through talking with other superintendents, he learned that some manufacturers’ decoder systems are based on a DC current and have latching solenoids, which sometimes get “stuck” open, resulting in overwatering. The Rain Bird decoder system is AC based, eliminating this issue. Young chose a Rain Bird decoder system with 600 valve-in-head rotors, with double rows in the fairways and part-circle ins and part-circle outs at the greens and tees.

The renovation took about two months and cost $750,000 – $600,000 allotted to the new system and $150,000 to the new pump station.

Efficiency has improved drastically since the renovation, Young says. Sophisticated heads and variable frequency drive pumps have shrunk watering windows from eight hours to three hours per day. With three times more heads located throughout the course, Young and his crews can use products that need to be watered-in along areas they couldn’t reach before. Young is also able to control the system through any device with Internet access, further increasing maintenance ease.

“Instead of being limited to my central computer or hand-held radios, I can maintain the system from my office at the clubhouse, my home, a coffee shop, the airport or even my cell phone,” he says. “It allows me to make last-minute updates due to any changes in the weather that might occur after I’ve left the property.”

But the most noticeable result has been an increase in the time Young and his crews can dedicate to other areas of the course, now that they aren’t working on mundane irrigation system repairs.

“Now that we’re not repairing our system day in and day out, we have time to focus on the little things,” Young says. “For example, instead of just mowing, my crews can focus on the cultivation of the entire course. This new system has definitely made things easier for all of us.” GCI

Emily Mullins is a freelance writer based in Lakewood, Ohio.