Irrigation battles continue

Making repairs to our aging and failing irrigation system continues to be our biggest time and man power consumer every week.  We dedicate at least 2 workers to digging up and repairing irrigation leaks and other issues just about every week now.  This really eats into being able to use them around the course to make improvements that are more apparent to the golfers.  A lot of our issues are due to a particular fitting that was used extensively throughout our course as well as many many courses that were being constructed during that time.  These Pierce fittings were a ductile fitting with an enamel coating.  This is great as long as the coating is not compromised.  It seems as though during the installation process the fitting would get nicked on a rock and it would invite the rust process to start.  Now we are definitely in the window where they all seem to be breaking through the rusted nicks that were formed years ago.

Here are two leaks we dug up over the last few weeks and they were both due to these rusted fitings.

Behind #9 green

 

 

The rusted out hole is cirlced in red



#14 green with the same rusted spot on the fitting