When Glendale was built 54 years ago, the contractor installed drain lines all over the course. In greens and tees, across fairways, all connecting into 6", 8", 10", or 12"lines running from the high side of the course and discharging into one the creeks. Usually they supply a set of as-built plans so the owner knows the location of all the lines for future use. We were supplied a set of "proposed" drain line locations, but some are in different locations, or not there at all. This creates a big challenge for us every time we need to do some digging on the golf course. When the original 1959 irrigation system was replaced in 1992, the irrigation contractor cut across lines all over the course. They repaired the drain lines that were visible to them during the trenching process. The lateral irrigation lines were pulled in place with a vertical plow and since we did not know the location of the drain lines, the plow ripped through drain lines everywhere. Some of these areas showed up the next year, some are just showing up today, 22 years later (I'd say we have repaired 150 drain lines since the new irrigation system was installed.) In all of the areas that we have done drainage work over the past 25 years, we have taken photos and made some drawings so we know where they are located. There are still many lines out there that we have no idea where they go or what gets tied into them. Several months ago a 3 foot deep sinkhole appeared about 20 yards to the left of #4 green. It is in the rough and out of play so not many golfers even knew it was there. Since the course is frozen and closed today, we decided this was the right time to take out our new excavator and start digging.
The photo above shows our Cat 304C excavator which we purchased this past summer. It is used but in very nice condition with just a little over 1100 hours on the meter. Once we started digging we found an old 6" concrete drain line that was broken. We continued digging along the pipe and found several repairs done years ago, more sections of pipe that were broken, and others areas of pipe full of tree roots. There were several large pine trees that were removed at this site four years ago, and two of the trees were planted directly on top of the drain line. This 6" line comes from up by #2 green, and ties into a 12" line near # 4 approach that empties into the creek by # 8 tee. We continued digging and when it was all done, we removed 105'of broken or clogged pipe.
If you look closely at the photo above, you can see this area is full of old tree roots.
The new line is 3 1/2 feet deep. 6" ADS black drain pipe will be installed, covered with four inches of pea gravel, and the rest buried in sand to the surface. The ditch is flowing a steady stream of water, so this area should dry up and be in good shape for another 50+ years.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent
-001.jpg)
