The mounding has been installed on 12 & 14 West and irrigation was installed yesterday.  The areas will be turfed on Monday and with the predicted rainfall should be thriving very quickly.  To install the irrigation the pumps needed to be shut down to allow for new tappings to be made and this means the system loses a lot of water and as I have mentioned before it is very important to expel the air from the pipework as slowly and thoroughly as possible, especially given the age and condition of some of the pipework on course.  

Not only does this mean a very late finish it also means a long and nervous day with no back up water available for the remaining front nine West Bentgrass greens.  They got through OK and the new TifEagle greens just keep improving every day and despite their young age had no dryness issues appear.

Unfortunately after such a complete irrigation system shutdown there is always the possibility of damage from air in the system, despite the best efforts to expel it.  There is no definitive plan of the network of piping under the ground and there are a lot of unknown areas where air can accumulate.  Sure enough a "Friday afternoon special" appeared on 2W fairway when a 100mm mainline let go but this was due more to the frailty of the pipe.  Fortunately Gus from Gus's Mini Excavators was able to leave a job he was on and come down and excavate for us to make the repair.  So another late night awaits while the system is bled again!!

Friday afternoon special!!