£5.50 | SEPTEMBER 2017

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Paul Kennedy is head of irrigation and water management at London

Golf Club and is responsible for keeping 36-holes of championship golf in impeccable condition all-year round.He explained how more accurate data and user-friendly control system technology are improving his irrigation practice.

Five hundred feet above sea level on the North Downs, London Golf Club is a 700-acre Nicklaus Design venue built in the 1990’s. The Heritage is a Jack Nicklaus Signature, while the second the International, was designed by Ron Kirby and is pure downland.

In the South East, water is a scarce resource. With sustainability in mind, grey water recycling was built in at the venue from the start. 90% of water used is recycled and every opportunity for using surface water run-off explored, to reduce the draw on mains water. Prone to extremes of UK temperature and drying east winds, water evaporation means reservoir levels soon drop when there’s little

rainfall. Over the course of the watering season, 10,000m³ water can be lost through evaporation alone. Replacing that with mains water at £1.30 per m³ is costly.

MeasurePaul said: “Our irrigation system is used between 60 and 90 days a year, beginning in March. Doing an audit has to be the first step so that you know exactly what you have to work with. You audit staff, you audit machinery, so why not audit your irrigation system? Only then can you work out what your irrigation requirements will be.”

Accurate data collection is key. Moisture levels are audited across the course so the team know,for example, exactly how long it takes before the greens will flood.

Paul added: “We check every rotor head and audit pump flow

to help us find leaks. Doing that we identified over 70 leaks, which accounted for as much as 66m³. This is a significant amount – more water than the average household uses in a year. We’ve worked on reducing leaks significantly and have around 20 still to tackle.”

Auditing costs is very important. When the course manager and management team are planning ahead, they need accurate historical and forecast data about rainfall, leakage, water applied, the cost of components to be repaired or replaced, plus associated staff costs.

With an older irrigation system you need to plan and focus on repair, so being able to add new rotors without having to change anything else is crucial.

Monitor and ManageWith accurate data, having a control system you can actually use is what improves irrigation practice,” said Paul. “Rain Bird’s Version 8 software uses our original 1993 system data. Installation took a couple of hours, done remotely by Rain Bird. We didn’t have to input new information or re-programme anything.

Data driven practice A game changer for golf course irrigation

Top right: Better irrigation practices will save your course money

Bottom right; Paul Kennedy using the Rain Bird software

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“The new system is engineered for timeless compatibility which means, for example, that we didn’t have to replace any rotor heads. We only updated our software.

“It’s all about central control. V8 makes everything more accessible. Hardware and data are available on one screen and with Windows functionality, the icons are simple and easy to use. The mapping is easily the best new feature as I can see what’s running, what’s working or not. I can immediately see where adjustments have been made.

“Programming irrigation by precipitation instead of time is also simple and that gives me even greater flexibility. I calculate evaporation for the day and with one click of a mouse, tick a box and the system ignores my time-based programmes and schedules for watering in millimetres.

“Everything can be controlled remotely. I can make temporary changes if I’m out on the course on a tablet, or on my phone at home and they’re immediate. Because it automatically reverts to our usual programme, nothing gets left on, or off, by mistake.

“Rain Bird’s V8 has just rounded the corners off but the way I operate it is essentially the same. It’s engineered so simply, and I’m in full control of what’s happening. The last thing at night you want to worry about is the irrigation system.”

Rain Bird’s latest irrigation and control system technologies combine computer-aided design with GPS geo-referenced images and state-of-the-art ET-based scheduling and are designed to be easy to install and use.

For more information contact Alastair Higgs, golf sales specialist – Rain Bird Europe, ahiggs@rainbird.eu.

Visit www.rainbird.eu and follow the UK team on Twitter @rainbirdgolfuk

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