Ridge 9

Ridge 9

One of my first days on property, I toured the Ridge 9 with my GM and VP of Agronomy. They explained to me the story of the ridge, processes they had attempted, success, failure and frustrations experienced on those 9 holes since they took over the property. As we toured I got excited at the opportunity to restore this unique and challenging 9 holes. I could see the fairway layout, landing areas, approaches and green surrounds. My architect and designer eye easily saw what could be, given the proper resources and tlc. By the end of the tour, I was resolved to reclaim this land and make my mark.

I was prepared to start that spring, hoping by fall to have a playable surface. However, as I uncovered the layers and layers of problems with the property, I quickly realized this would be a much larger undertaking than at face value. I am going to uncover each challenge we have revealed to date in hopes to provide some understanding to part of the reason we have not moved forward with any restoration projects.

We will begin with the irrigation system currently on the ridge, a system installed in the early 80’s when the property was first developed and mostly antiquated. Beginning at the greens, typical to the time, the greens have 4-5 pop up sprinklers controlled by an electric valve, similar to an ornamental bed, or lawn irrigation. A signal is sent opening a solenoid on the electric valve and water flows through the pipe, turning on all the sprinkles simultaneously. There is several disadvantages to this type of system on a greens complex. Firstly, you cannot control the water, at all. Either it is on or off, if you have a slope it gets the same water as a low area. This is in contrast to modern irrigation systems where each head operates individually, with a valve at the bottom of the head, allowing us to provide each quadrant of the green with the required water. With all the heads connected you have to water to the wettest area and supplement with hand watering or risk scorching the turf in the heat of the summer. Secondly, the heads are undersized, producing at most 20 or 25 gallons per min (GPM) as opposed to more current heads that can produce anywhere from 25 to 60 GPM, and based on nozzles you can tailor the throw and GPM to the need of the turf. In the current state, there is no flexibility in your watering practices. Finally, if a wire is cut or a solenoid goes bad the entire green goes without water. In a modern system, only 20% or 25% of the green will go without water under the same circumstances. These are serious challenges that need to be surmounted prior to a successful grow in.

Moving on to the fairways, a traditional single row system with virtual cannon for a head. These heads were preferred at the time of the ridge’s installation and would have been considered state of the art with the ability to throw water 90+ feet. The down side is that the everything outside that 90’ radios goes without water and relies on Mother Nature to survive. The other down side is the center of the fairway will get twice the water that the side does, as the heads are installed on 90’ centers to throw back to each head. The center gets water from both heads while the sides only get water from 1 head. However, despite this you can provide decent conditions and turf 60 yards wide running down the center of the fairways. The rest is left to the mercy of Mother Nature. The tees are set up the same as the greens and have the same disadvantages.

Moving on to the pipes in the ground. There is a sizable mainline that runs down the center of the fairways, the fairway heads tap directly into this mainline, there is certain advantages to this system in that there is reduced opportunity for pipe to break since there is no laterals. However, if you have to work on a head or do have a break you have to shut down half the ridge to work on it as there’s no isolation valves, except on 4. This is a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things; the real issue is the length of time the pipe has been in the ground and the material used. PVC pipe typically has a lifespan of 25 years, when properly installed, which means the PVC aged out around 2005. The real issue is they used a combination of PVC pipe and either ductal iron, or cast iron pipe. The iron pipe has been corroding for 40 years, and flakes are breaking off. When you have to replace iron pipe you typically have to do it in very large sections as opposed to smaller ones with PVC pipe. The biggest issue is the corrosion is ending up in the bottom of the heads, and in the greens electric valves, clogging the heads and valves and preventing them from allowing water through. The only way to free them is to remove the head and flush the particles out. A time consuming process, and hence the disadvantage of the single main line. There is no telling at what point the corrosion will fully flush through and the problem resolved and honestly the process could cause the iron pipe to be weakened enough that it erupts in the ground.

To wrap up the hydraulic side (aka water movement) of the irrigation problems is the booster pump that feeds the ridge. Due to the distance from the primary pump for the valley, we have a booster pump located at the maintenance shop that pressurizes the ridge pipes. The booster pump has been neglected for quite a while and requires an overhaul to be made functional. Many of the valves at the booster pump are worn out and the computer system that regulates the pressure is pretty much fried. Any one of these hydraulic issues would give pause before embarking on any type of renovation but combined its nearly impossible.

But wait, there’s more.

Now let us turn to the electric side of the irrigation system. The ridge utilizes 3 satellite boxes that receive a radio signal form the shop and power the different stations, same as the valley. The first challenge is with the satellites themselves, there is 2 on the ridge, in the community, and 1 located at the clubhouse in a closet (true story). At some point, these satellites were moved, or repositioned, likely when they upgraded the valley’s irrigation system in the early 90’s. My guess is that they upgraded the satellites at that time to match what was installed on the valley for ease of communication. All great things, except when they did that they bridged the distance with a different kind of wire. Typically we use a 14-gauge wire on our golf course systems, one power wire that goes from the satellite to the head, each head has its own wire, and one common or ground wire that creates a loop connecting all the heads together. This is in place at the ridge, however, when they made the upgrade they used 16 strand landscaping wire to bridge the gap. This has much lower connectivity, but the real problem is the satellites are a literal rat’s nest of wires. To utilize the satellites all the wires will have to be removed, correct turf wires spliced in, and then reconnected. Then comes the challenge, it is virtually impossible to know where the wires are supposed to go so each wire will have to be connected and tested to ensure its proper order. Being that none of the satellites are in view of the golf course, and likely cover at minimum 3 holes, this will require a spotter to ride the course constantly looking for the head that turned on and radio back the location.

That is of course assuming that no wires are broken in the ground, the solenoids are still good, and the heads are still wired correctly, which there not. Having dug up several heads we found that at some point previous workers stopped reconnecting the wires to the heads. There is no way to know how many heads are disconnected or if the wire in the ground is still viable. Each head will have to be dug up and checked for connection. On top of that many of the heads were simply removed from the ground because of in operation and replaced with quick connects to directly plug a hose in. An effort made to supply water when time did not allow the proper fix. Replacing these heads is easy enough provided you could find the quick connects after nearly a decade of nonuse.

The next challenge is the radio signal going to these satellite boxes, with decades of tree growth and construction it is quite possible that our radio will not be able to reach the satellites any more. We won’t know until were ready to fire up and if the signal is weak that can prevent water from running at night. Luckily, the satellites we will get for the ridge can be self-programmed for watering but you will have to schedule it around the valley’s watering schedule, which the computer normally does. Once all of these hydraulic and electrical challenges have been overcome, we have to turn our attention to infrastructure.

Before the ridge can be opened for golfers, several serious problems need to be addressed. The first is that of erosion, there are several streams and drainage runoff points that cross the golf course. At 2 points these streams cross the cart path, one by design, on 7, as a way to mitigate erosion after the pipe running under the fairway had become corrupted. It is not safe, or wise to open prior to fixing this pipe and mitigating the problem. Originally, this stream ran under the fairway through a 16” pipe that has become completely clogged. The other area seams to a clogged pipe but further investigation is required. There’s also a surface run off issue on sever of the holes where pipes have become corrupted and water is no longer flowing through the pipe but across the fairways. That and the marsh that has formed on 3, create a serious drainage issue that needs to be worked out and fixed before re-grassing can begin. There is also the issue of the cart path that has been eroded away in 2 locations on 7. The stream there either needs to be shored up with gabion walls or the cart path redirected. Then there is the trees and underbrush that has been allowed to grow unchecked over the last years. In many areas, the woods have pushed into the “in play” areas and will need to be trimmed back. Add to that the wall on 1 tee that will need to be replaced as well.

After all that has been addressed the last issue is the soil. The greens may be ok, being that they are USGA greens from the 80’s that appear to have been installed correctly. The biggest challenges will be with the drainpipes under the greens, we will need to identify all of the outflows and flush the lines to insure they are properly functioning, if they are, which is not likely, as drainpipe typically only last 10-12 years and a USGA green lifespan is 25 years under proper Maintenance. If they are functioning, and we can clean them, the only other holdup will be the black layer that has formed. This black layer is not in the top layer, which is good because it means the first couple inches still drains. It is possible that with an aggressive deep tine aeration process this black layer could be mitigated. Black layer forms when water stays to long in the soil with nowhere to go. It chokes out all life and smells like rotting plants, however, if the drains work and we can deep tine that may not be a serious hindrance.

The fairways on the other hand are a serious hindrance. The soil is full of rocks and years or poor turf have washed away the topsoil in many areas. Establishing turf on this soil will take serious work, especially considering the infrastructure we are working with. However, where there is a will there is a way and we certainly can overcome this as well.

I will end with this, while it may seem like a simple process to recover the ridge, it is going to take a lot of effort and resources. It is not impossible, but it is not what it appears at face value. If and when we make a move to overcome the issues on the property I can assure it will be done the right way and all points will be considered.