10 Irrigation leak

     10 fairway developed a wet spot couple of months ago.  We thought it was a valve since all the water was coming out of the valve box.  After digging it up we found out the valve was good.  Water was following the irrigation line.  We found the leak on a 8'' mainline tee.  This line comes directly from the pump station.  We had to order parts to fix the tee.  Our local distributor does not carry parts for anything larger than 6''.  The entire tee was covered with concrete about 12'' - 14'' thick.  That was the most concrete I have ever seen on any irrigation project.  To isolate the leak we had to turn off  3 valves.  This made it difficult to water turf on the back nine. Water had to come all the way from # 4 fairway past Clubhouse down 18 fairway back to 17.  The further you got away from 4 the weaker the pressure was.  Back down in 12 and 13 fairways we could not get fairways heads to run properly.  We could only run greens 1 station at a time.  We had the water off to the leak for 3 days.  2 days to install the new tee and 1 day for our concrete thrust block to cure. This was the biggest leak I have ever fixed.  I am glad this job is finished.

 Old tee covered in concrete

 The tractor loader is 6' wide.  lots of concrete

 Ready for the new tee.  8'' coming in from right.  8'' at bottom of picture and 3'' at top of picture.

 New tee ready to be lowered in hole

New tee installed.

Course update

     We have been very busy on the golf course past few weeks.  Weather has been pretty nice for the most part in June.  Temperature were below normal but we had 8'' of rain for the month.  The heat and humidity did return for the last week of June into the first week of July.  We knew it would be back.  We did not have to hand water greens until June 30th.  that might be the latest I have ever had to start hand watering greens.  Last year we were hand watering the first week of May.  That was  the earliest I started hand watering greens .
     With the heat the fairways are taking off.  The new sod we laid in the fairways and tees is rooting.  We have been busy spraying the Bermuda grass contamination in our fairways, tees and green surrounds.  You will notice the white grass around the green and in the collars.  That is Bermuda grass that has encroached in our surrounds, collars and greens that is hurt by herbicide application.  I am using two different herbicides to treat our fairways and tee's.  The herbicides do not hurt the Zoysia grass but have negative impact on the invasive Bermuda grass.  We will treat all fairways and tee's 3 times.  The green surrounds we are using a different herbicide to take out the Bermuda grass.  It is safe enough to use on Bentgrass at lower rates.  We will spray our surrounds 5 or 6 times to take out the Bermuda.

Notice the off colored turf in the center.  Bermuda hurt by herbicide application.

The white grass is the Bermuda.  Right side of picture is the collar.  Bermuda hurt by herbicide app Bentgrass and Fescue not affected.

     If you have been out you have noticed we removed 28 stumps throughout the golf course.  Stumps are gone but we are still cleaning up the mess left behind by the stump grinder.  After we remove shavings we will add more soil level area off and seed.
     With the hot temperatures and high humidity we are on a mow and roll rotation.  We will continue this until we get a break in the weather.  You might have noticed a big hole in 10 fairway.  We have a major mainline leak.  This is a 8'' mainline coming directly from the pump station.  I had to order ductile steel joints to get this repaired.  We will be working on this next Monday.
     Happy 4th from your Golf Course Maintenance Staff.  Be safe.