Our irrigation system here at Legacy Ridge is going on 18 years old now and is starting to show it's age in some ways. One of the problems with an aging system is a loss of distribution uniformity due to wear. Our system is comprised mostly of full-circle, brass impact style sprinklers made by Rain Bird. In their day they were the best thing going for double and triple row irrigation. Today, they have been replaced with plastic, "closed case rotor" sprinklers that are much cheaper to manufacture and significantly less durable in our opinion.
Each sprinkler has two distinct nozzles, a "range" nozzle and a "drive" nozzle. The range nozzle produces the large stream, irrigating a doughnut shape area around the sprinkler. The drive nozzle actually makes the sprinkler turn, and irrigates the area inside the range or nearer the sprinkler. Generally, the drive nozzle wear is more apparent, resulting in a green ring around the sprinkler with drier turf surrounding.
Once we have replaced the two worn nozzles and adjusted the spring tension, these sprinklers should perform as though they were new. Our hope is to refurbish all 1000 or so 51 DRs to near-new condition to extend the life and efficiency of our system. As environmental stewards, we aim to reduce our water consumption to only what is absolutely neccesary to provide firm playing conditions and maintain a healthy stand of turf for our guests to enjoy.
If we can refurbish our current sprinkler system with minor upgrades like nozzles and save a few thousand gallons a night. In a year we could realize thousands of dollars in savings that can be used for other improvements around the course. We will talk more about irrigation as we the warm weather approaches, when our irrigation practices and system are put to the test.
