More drainage issues

Last week I showed the process that we go through when looking for drain lines in really wet areas on the course. Recently we were working on #8 fairway between the fairway bunkers. The fairway turf was so wet and mucky that you couldn't even walk on it. We knew that something was really clogged or broken so we started digging. We found a line going across the fairway toward the creek but couldn't find the end of the pipe. It was buried in the bank so we ran a hose down it with the water on until we could locate and expose the end of the pipe.

We frequently find drain lines that are buried along creek banks. Once we got it flushed out we could tie into it with some new drain lines through the sloppy area.

Several new lines were added and week later the area has dried out and is playable. It was so wet in front of the 9th tee we knew there had to be some other line that was broken or plugged so we kept digging.

Finally we found an old 8" concrete line over by the cart path that was plugged full of tree roots. A tree had been planted directly on top of the drain line. As we dug on the other side of the path we found two more trees that had also been planted years ago on top of the line.

We had to dig up the stumps to get at the drain line and clean out all the roots. It was a lot bigger job that we expected.

With the stumps removed we were able to clean out the roots and add new sections of pipe. We could be dealing with this condition all over the course for years to come since there was no map of the drainage system when the trees were planted.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent