Reg -n- gControl:A Tale of Two

Golf Course IrrigationSystems

The greens on the east nine of Atlantis Golf Club are the only greens In southern Florida thatfollow USGA specifications exactly.14 sportsTURF

Low pressure heads at Canyon Country Club are IE

The early morning routines of growingnumber of golf course superintendentshave changed this past year. Like

most superintendents in the U.S., they wakeup before dawn, get dressed, grab a quickbreakfast and head for the course. As theydrive to work, they go over the work schedulefor the day in their heads.

A few items weigh heaviest on their minds.In the spring, it might be the persistenceof overseeded ryegrass in bermudagrass.In the summer, it may be the spread of turf-grass diseases. In the fall, it could be thecondition of the overseeded ryegrass as theyprepare their courses for winter golfers. Butduring every season superintendents starttheir day wondering whether or not the ir-rigation system malfunctioned during the'night due to a break, pump problem or powerfailure.

Before last year, Mark Henderson at At-lantis Golf Club in Atlantis, FL, and Rick Sail,at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs,CA, had just one way to find out if the irri-gation system worked properly the night be-fore, by jumping in a turf vehicle and inspect-ing the course hole-by-hole. But, that has

prone to problems with drift and lower the pressure demand on the pump system.

changed. Today, Henderson and Sail cancheck the status of their irrigation systemsfrom their offices with the push of a button.A quick glance at a'computer screen or prin-tout tells them everything they need to knowin seconds.

If you asked Henderson a year ago if heexpected to become a "computer superin-tendent," he would probably have said no.Ironically, for Henderson and Sail it was otherimprovements in their irrigation systems thatled to the addition of computerized centralcontrollers.

Atlantis Golf Club is a 27-hole privatecourse built in the early '50s by the Kintzfamily as a centerpiece for its planned com-munity development called Atlantis. Locatedjust south of affluent West Palm Beach, theKintz family envisoned Atlantis as a com-munity of fine homes to serve affluent north-erners during the winter. Golf course ar-chitect William F. Mitchell carefully threadedthe first 18 holes through the slash pinecovering the coastal flatland in the '50s andreturned a decade later to add nine moreholes.

It wasn't long, however, before the fine,

sugar sand and four separate pump stationsstarted to wreak havoc on the quick cou-pler irrigation system with its galvanizedpipes. To regain control, in 1972, the courseinstalled one of the few electric valve sys-tems in southern Florida. Four heads weregrouped on each station. Each of the 14separate controllers had 23 stations. "Onthe same station, two heads would be elevat-ed and two would be in low spots," saysHenderson. "One area would be too drywhile the other area was always wet."Changing the start and run times was a hugetask, but it was still a major improvementover the old quick-coupler system.

Water was supplied on a piecemeal ba-sis by four pumps spread out across thecourse, three from wells and one from acanal. Each well had a line shaft turbinepump with a pressure reducing valve. On-ly one pump had an hydropneumatic tankto protect the old lines from pressure sur-ges. In addition, the wells were beginningto pump sand into the system. Neverthe-less, the decision was made to leave thepumps and the aging water mains alone.

Southern Florida is frequently referred to

as the lightning capital of the world. Lightningthat strikes the ground near a valve will senda surge of current through the wires to thecontroller, damaging both. Forthis reason,an estimated 97 percent of the golf coursesin southern Florida install hydraulic valvesand controllers. The small, pressurized tubesof water between the valves and controllersprotect the controllers from electricaldamage.

By the time Henderson joined Atlantisfrom Mayacoo Lakes Country Club, a Nick-laus course in West Palm Beach, the irri-gation system was out of control. "We hadto repair five or six leaks every day as theold pipes gave out," he recalls. "The sandwas also causing the rotary sprinkler headsto malfunction and we had to keep a closeeye on all four pump stations. We werespending more than $30,000 every year forirrigation system maintenance." Every daywas like sticking more fingers in more andmore holes in the dike.

Atlantis not only had a new superinten-dent, it had a new greens chairman. BobMaloney was a retired Air Force colonel and

continued on page 16

January, 1988 15

It was taking morethan 12 hours to

irrigate the course.That meantAtlantis

was paying peakrates for electricity

for the pumps.

Regaining Controlcontinued from page 15former vice president of RCA. The engineer,trained at West Point and Harvard, was ac-customed to developing solutions for com-plex problems. He had chosen Hendersonfor his six years experience with Nicklausand his turf management degree from LakeCity Community College. The two of themstarted to identify all the various problemswith the system.

"My main concerns were the pipes andwires on the old north and south nines andthe sprinkler heads," Henderson states. Notonly was high pressure from the pump sys-tem rupturing the pipes, the heads were get-ting stuck. It was taking more than 12 hoursto irrigate the course. That meant Atlantiswas paying peak hour rates for electricityfor the pumps.

The Tifdwarf greens and Ormond ber-mudagrass fairways on the east nine weresuffering from poor drainage since mucksoil had been brought in when the third ninewas added. "I thought some of the moistureproblems could be solved with single headcontrol, at least around the greens,"

The new pump station at Atlantis Is concealed In an attractive pump house nestled in a groveof trees. All pump components were hot·dlpped galvanized to resist corrosion.

Maloney called in golf course architect focus was on the pumps, pipes, wires, andand irrigation consultant Ted McAnlis of heads on all 27 holes and the greens onNorth Palm Beach to help construct an over- the east nine.all renovation plan that could be present- The first decision was to build one cen-ed to the private club's 380 members. The tral pumping station drawing from a lakemore McAnlis talked to Maloney and Hen- instead of wells. The old well pumps wouldderson, the more he realized that they need- be used for backup only. "There is a grow-ed more control than a hydraulic system ing concern in this area about salt watercould provide. Engineers from Rain Bird and intruding into the ground water," says McAn-Toro were called in as was USGA Green lis. Atlantis is only five miles from the At-Section regional agronomist John Foy about lantic Ocean. The course has an abundancethe greens on the east nine. Maloney and of surface water and a 23 acre lake thatHenderson started visiting other courses in could serve as an irrigation reservoir.the area to see their irrigation systems. All pipes, wires, heads and controllers

"Our goal was to utilize water to its max- would be replaced. To provide maximumimum capability and to get our irrigation control, nearly all heads would be valve-in-maintenance costs down to less than head. This favored staying with an electric$10,000 a year," said Maloney. The main system as opposed to an hydraulic. It also

made a strong case for going to a central-ized computer controller.

All the greens on the east nine would berebuilt to "exact" USGA Green Sectionspecifications. No course in Florida had everfollowed the USGA specs to the letter, saidFoy. That challenged the Atlantis team. Fur-thermore, drainage would be installed inproblem muck soil areas on fairways andtees on the east nine. The pipes on the eastnine would stay, but everything else wouldbe replaced. Altogether the tab for the projectwas nearly $1 million.

"The heads are the heart of an irrigationsystem as far as I'm concerned," Hender-son points out. "You build the system aroundthe heads." Henderson favored the Torogear-drive heads. That gave Chuck Wat-son from Hector Turf, the Toro Irrigation dis-tributor for southern Florida, the idea thatAtlantis could become the first course inFlorida to install the computerized Network8000. Henderson had seen the Rain BirdMaxi III central computer system operateand liked what it could do. Boynton Pump,

conffnuedon page 50This single AquaTurf pump station replaced four separate pumps that were previously locatedat different locations on the 27·hole course.

16 sportsTURF

McAnlis used a newmethod he calls

"time slot design" todesign a system thatuses 90 percent of thecapacity of the pumpstation at all times.

Regaining Controlcontinued from page 16

a Rain Bird dealer in Boynton Beach, FL,had impressed Maloney and Henderson withits explanation of the Maxi.

After all the options were laid out on thetable, McAnlis was given the job of puttingtogether the best combination of productsto fit Atlantis Golf Club. He used a newmethod he calls "time-slot-design" to de-sign a system that utilizes more than 90 per-cent of the capacity of the pump station atall times. Rather than grouping heads in sta-tions, he took advantage of the valve-in-headsprinklers and the capability of a central com-puter so that 33 to 34 heads in scatteredlocations would operate at all times duringthe schedule. By using a computer he wasable to select the right combination of headsin a few hours rather than two or three daysusing zones and a calculator.• "We were able to knock more than fourhours off the time it took to irrigate thecourse," boasts McAnlis. As a result, thepumps work more efficiently for a shorterlength of time. Furthermore, Atlantis couldtake advantage of a 25 percent savings in

Henderson uses a light pen to make program adjustments from his office with the IBMIXT per-sonal computer that Is the central control for the Network 8000.

electrical rates by operating during off-peakhours. During the day, a small jockey pumpwould keep the system pressurized and al-low for repeat cycles and syringing.

McAnlis wanted to give Henderson theability to make adjustments in the programfrom both the field and a central computer.That meant the satellites had to have muchof the same programming capability as thecentral. That way Henderson could makechanges in either location based upon con-ditions at each head. After adjustments weremade for shade, soil, slope and wind, theschedule could be shortened or lengthenedaccording to a calculation called evapotran-spiration which determines how much waterneeds to be replaced each day.

McAnlis thought that if any change wasmade at a satellite, he wanted the change

Irrigation programs are downloaded once each day to the satellites. The temperature monitorattached to these satellites feeds data to the central computer to determine dally ET.50 sportsTURF

to be noted by the central computer as well.Finally, if the central computer went down,he wanted the satellites to continue to carryout the schedule as "stand-alones." He sawan advantage in downloading the commandsfor each satellite at once rather than hav-ing the central send the commands to thesatellites as the schedule dictated. That way,if the central went down, the satellites couldcarryon the program without being notifiedby the central.

As his want list grew, McAnlis found him-self leaning toward the Toro computer andsatellites. "It was exciting working with whatwould be the first Network 8000 to be in-stalled in southern Florida," he recalls.

Utilizing a combination of a computerizedcentral controller and satellites with extensivestand-alone capability, the Network 8000brings new efficiency to irrigation manage-ment. The system uses an IBM/XT personalcomputer, including keyboard, color monitor,matrix printer and light pen, as its operat-ing hub. The non-dedicated central com-puter can be used simultaneously for bus-iness tasks and irrigation program opera-tion. One function does not tie up thecomputer from other functions.

The central computer can operate up to800 satellites with 32 stations each. By en-tering design, weather, geographical andagronomic information into the central, oper-ating times for all stations are automaticallycomputed based on the evapotranspirationrate, modified by any applicable rainfall.These calculations can be reviewed by theirrigation manager before they are down-loaded to the satellites.

All relevant programming can be down-loaded to the satellites at one time. Fromthen on, the satellites can operate as stand-alones without further instructions from thecentral. Programs can be adjusted manu-

continued on page 52

Determining a turfarea's actual waterrequirements hadbeen a stumblingblock for computerirrigation control

Regaining Controlcontinued from page 50

ally at the satellite if desired. Each satel-lite can operate as many as four stationson four programs at the same time. Further-more, each station can have eight start timesand is capable of running three valve-in-headsolenoids. Programs can be repeated threetimes.

The whole key to the system is utilizingincreased control to reduce energy andwater consumption. Accurately determin-ing a turf area's actual water requirementshad been a major stumbling block for com-puterized irrigation control. Moisture sen-sors measured small areas. To get accurateinformation for an entire course would re-quire a multitude of sensors. A way to figure

out the amount of water utilized by plantsor lost to the atmosphere under changingweather conditions was needed.

Toro assigned the task of finding a prac-tical method of determining ET to Dr. JimWatson, its chief agronomist. Watson, as-sisted by five of his colleagues, Jule Mey-er, Steve Cockerham and Dr. Vic Gibeaultof the University of California at Riverside,and Dr. Jim Beard and Dr. Cornelius vanBavel of Texas A&M University gatheredtogether to work out a method for determin-ing ET for large turf areas.

There are about as many opinions aboutmeasuring ET as there are scientists," re-marks Terry Mylne, designer of the elec-tronics for the Network 8000. "We took fourof the best and built a system based onthem." The superintendent can choose fromany of the four different ET measurementmethods.

The first is based upon temperature. Eachsatellite has a built-in thermometer. Usingthis information and an equation based uponthe high and low daily temperatures andthe latitiude and longitude of the site, thecomputer calculates the ET. The secondmethod entails a weather station to keeptrack of solar radiation, temperature, windspeed and humidity. The third utilizes histor-ical weather data and the fourth relies up-on agencies that collect and provide ET dataon a daily basis, such as the California Ir-rigation Management Information System

(CIMIS) headquartered at the University ofCalifornia at Davis.

Once ET is determined, the amount ofwater to be dispersed by each station is cal-culated by the computer. This is possiblebecause the superintendent has entered thetype of nozzle, spacing and other conditionsfor each station. Values for soil type, turf-grass, soil compaction, pH, shade, wind andsun exposure are assigned to each station.The computer does the rest, although thesuperintendent can make adjustments tothe computer's calculations if he desires.

The feature that may have cinched it forthe Network 8000 was double lightning pro-tection. Each station is isolated from thesatellite in case of lightning by a surge pro-tector. In addition, there is a back-up fusefor every five stations.

Maloney and Henderson presented McAn-lis's plan to the membership. "Eighty-threepercent of the members voted for the sys-tem," says Maloney. They shared his be-lief that there is no reason for "mature"courses to take a back seat to new ones.Private courses still have to compete formembers.

AquaTurf of Jacksonville, FL, won the bidfor the installation of the pump station, theirrigation system and the greens. Since thecompany is both a golf course constructioncompany and a manufacturer of pump sys-tems, it had a good grasp of fitting all the

continued on page 54

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By inputting the ETdata into the central

computer, all thewatering times are

decreased or increasedautomatically.

Regaining Controlcontinued from page 52

components together.A single pump station with a 25 hp jock-

ey pump, three 75 hp pumps, and a low-speed turbine pump replaced the four oldpump stations. To keep tight control overpressure, a hydropneumatic tank, pressurerelief valves and microprocessor controllerwere added. The pump controller was thenconnected to the Network 8000 system. Thisprovides Henderson with important feed-back and historical data so that he can adjustpump and irrigation system operation todecrease energy use.

Like any computerized irrigation system,the more you work with it the more you real-ize what it can do. Henderson in a few shortmonths has discovered how easy it is to savewater and to give every turf area just thewater it needs. "We could see the differ-ence between the north and south ninesand the east nine in a matter of weeks," hereveals. "Applying the right amount of waterto each area makes that much difference."

The Atlantis system uses a weather sta-tion for ET information. By inputing the ETdata into the central computer, all the water-ing times are decreased or increased au-tomatically. Henderson can override the pro-gram for specific stations if he desires, butmost of the specific requirements for eachstation are already included in the program.

Maloney reports the course saw an im-mediate 25 percent reduction in energy

All wires, heads and controllers on the east course at Atlantis were replaced. The pipes on th-enewest of the three nines was left Intact.costs. "We're saving more than we thoughtwe would," he adds. The savings shouldincrease further as Henderson discovershow better water management reduces fer-tilizer, fungicide and pesticide applications."Each week I find another way to take ad-vantage of the computer programs," remarksHenderson.

While Henderson is learning the ropesof the first Network 8000 in southern Flori-da, Rick Sail is one of five or six superin-tendents in the Palm Springs, CA, area whoshare their experiences with the system.Sail, superintendent of Canyon CountryClub, talks with his computer colleaguesweekly. In fact, it was his experience withcomputerized irrigation controllers that gothim the job.

The situation looked bleak at CanyonCountry Club three years ago when DickAmeny took over as general manager. "Itook one look at the budget and knew some-thing had to be done about maintenanceexpenses," he recalls. Expenses were ex-ceeding income for the private 36-holecourse.

The course had one of the few remain-

The greens on the east nine had to be rebuilt because muck soli used to construct them origi-nally was causing severe drainage problems.

54 sportsTURF

ing quick-coupler systems in the Coachel-la Valley, the site of more than 65 desertgolf courses. Not only did it take three full-time staff to operate the system, electrici-ty and other utilities were costing the coursenearly $120,000 a year. "We would start ir-rigating at 2 p.m. and not finish until 6 a.m.the next morning," said Ameny. The 100hp pumps on two wells were running 24hours every day.

'I had to find a way to reduce our utilityand manpower expenses fast," said Ame-ny. Since the electricity was his biggest con-cern, he called Tom Olson, a specialist inagricultural irrigation for Southern Califor-nia Edison. The utility company was aggres-sively encouraging its customers to reduceor shift their electicalload to off-peak hours,from 6 p.m. to noon. "He suggested find-ing a way to cut our energy consumptionby running the system at lower pressure atoff-peak hours."

A few superintendents in the area hadbeen experimenting with a prototype low-pressure head from Toro. It operated at 50psi, half the pressure of conventional golfcourse heads. Less pump horsepower wasneeded to meet the flow requirements ofthe head. The larger droplets it producedwere also less prone to drifting in the desertwinds.

Ameny wanted to know more about theheads and the type of automatic control sys-tem that would be needed to run them. Hecalled Roger Gordon, a well-known local golfcourse irrigation specialist, for profession-al advice. Gordon discovered that the headswere not yet on the market and put togethera state-of-the-art conventional irrigation sys-tem for Canyon Country Club that includ-ed Hunter heads, Rain Bird valves and aMotorola computerized control system.

Two years in a row the membership wouldnot approve the new irrigation system. Ame-ny needed more ammunition to convincethe members a new irrigation system wouldsave money. It came when Toro finally put

continued on page 56

The bottom line is theentire course can now

be watered in sixhours, during off-peak

hours.Regaining Controlcontinued from page 54

the 660 low pressure heads on the market.The company happened to be installing thefirst Network 8000 systems in the CoachellaValley at the same time. Significant waterand energy savings were being reported forconventional systems utilizing the combi-nation of satellites and central computer.

Ameny, who had learned a great dealabout irrigation during his two-year searchfor a solution to the course's energy problem,thought there must be a way to combinethe low-pressure heads with the advancedcontrol provided by computers. No golfcourse had ever installed such a combina-tion. Ameny asked Gordon if it could work.The combination excited Gordon as muchas Ameny and the people at Toro and atPacific Equipment and Irrigation, the localToro distributor.

With the new design in hand and calcu-lations from Olson at Edison, Ameny wentbefore the members again. He explainedthe potential 20 percent savings in energyto them, as well as the shorter irrigation timeand the ET adlustrnent for saving water. Hestrengthened his case with a more efficentpump station and a way to reduce the main-tenance staff by three. On paper, the sav-ings added up to nearly $180,000 per year.The system would pay for itself in five years.This time the members said yes.

"We essentially had three months to to-tally revamp the old quick coupler system,"says Gordon. "Most of the club membersleave in April or May, so the system hadto installed between then and Septemberwhen overseeding takes place." Anotherproblem was finding someone who had ex-perience with irrigation computers.

A year before, Sail had moved from Ohioto be superintendent of the Palmer Courseat Mission Hills Country Club in nearby PalmDesert. Sail had quickly made a name forhimself by mastering the predeccessor tothe Network 800, the VT-3. Many of theprogramming functions were similar betweenthe two controllers. Mission Hills also hadbeen testing the low-pressure heads. Torotold Ameny about Sail. Not only did CanyonCountry Club offer Sail a huge challenge,it would let him develop an entirely new com-puterized irrigation system from the groundup. He took the job.

"It took 16 manhours to input all the da-ta the first time," Sail recalls. The computerknows where every head is located, whattype of nozzle it has, the site conditions at56 sportsTURF

The heart of the Network 8000 Is an IBMIXT personal computer. A phone modem links thecomputer to the satellites and a printer provides "hard copy" reports.each head and the type of turfgrass. Allheads are identified to fit one of five pro-grams, a greens program, a tee program,a rough program, a fairway program anda bank program. Sail added a sixth programto run the lake aerators.

Meanwhile, Foremost Construction Com-pany was installing the 660 heads, valves,pipes, controllers and pump station for anew well. Previously the course had twosmall wells, each with a 100 hp pump. Asingle, larger well would now supply waterfor the low-pressure heads. The new pumpstation included a 25 hp jockey pump, one50 hp pump and one 100 hp pump, ahydropneumatic tank, pressure valves andcontroller. Instead of producing 115 psi, thenew pump station produces 77 psi. The twolarge pumps only operate at off-peak hours.The jockey pump can supply up to 20 headsduring peak power hours.

It all came together in October. Right awaySail utilized the Network 8000's programcapabilities to repeat programs up to eighttimes per day to protect the tender ryegrassseedlings from the dry, desert winds. Theyear before it had taken the ryegrass twomonths to get far enough along to allow cartson the fairways. The new system cut thistime to five weeks.

ET can vary widely in the desert. Sail feedsinformation from local weather forecasts intothe computer so it can set an ET for theday. "In simple terms, the ET is a precipi-tation rate measured in hundreths of an inchper day," he explains. "If the heads are put-ting out .6 inch of water per hour and theET is .10 (meaning 10 hundreths of an inchof water needs to be applied that day), thenthe computer will tell the satellites to runfor ten minutes. Sail has seen the run timevary from as short as three minutes to aslong as 26 minutes.

The feature that Sail uses as much asET is the "projected flow chart." After hehas adjusted the program for whatever rea-son, the computer takes the start and runtime data and constructs a flow chart. Asmooth curve means the pumps will nothave to cycle on and off to meet water de-mand. Before Sail downloads the sched-ule to the satellites at 7 p.m., he can makesure he is not wasting energy at the pump

house.Global adjust is another water-saving fea-

tu re Sail uses often. If the weather forecastfor the day was incorrect and the day is hot-ter, cloudier or windier than predicted, hecan increase or decrease all the programrun times by a percentage figure. "If we geta short rain or clouds move in, I'll globallyadjust the programs down by 50 percent,"explains Sail. "On a very hot day I'll raiseit 150 percent." He can override any pro-gram if he needs to by giving an "operatorselected" command.

The bottom line is that the entire coursecan now be watered in six hours, the money-saving off-peak hours between midnight and6 a.m. Furthermore, for every pound of pres-sure saved by the heads, the energy billdrops approximately one percent. ForCanyon Country Club, the two items addup to a yearly savings of more than $40,000,according to Ameny. To make the deal evensweeter, Edison gave the course a $45,000rebate for investing in energy-saving tech-nology. In water, savings the first yearamounted to 16 percent less acre feet.

Word spreads fast in the desert and bothSail and Ameny have been getting calls fromother courses. Energy savings and incen-tives from the electric company are catch-ing nearly everyone's attention.

Like Henderson, Sail is getting more outof the computer programs each week. Thenumber of Network 8000 systems in thePalm Springs area is now over five. Thenumber of courses switching to low-pressureheads is also growing.

Unlike Henderson, Sail has superinten-dents nearby to discuss his experiences withthe system. They talk by phone regularlyand help each other out. They know theyare part of a special group, the first superin-tendents to try this new technology. But,most importantly, by combining theirknowledge of turf management with ad-vanced technology they are are changinggolf course management.

That makes them anxious to get to workin the morning, to see irrigation as achallenge instead of a chore, and to sharetheir knowledge with other superintendents.Their morning routine may be changing, butit's for the better .•