A nightmare of a morning last Sunday while trying to prep the course for the mens foursomes.  The pumps went down just after we started which was crucial as we use a high pressure hose with a special nozzle to blow debris off the greens prior to any work being done on them.  And given the way it blew on Saturday there was a lot of debris to move!!  Using the water is faster and obviously way quieter that petrol blowers so it was quite a disruption.  Then we had another pipe blow out on 13R that required some specialty fittings that we don't stock.  It was one of the ''specials'' that we so often find when we uncover pipe work!!??

Alas further pump shed dramas during the week but at least I have been able to get some water out to greens, tees and some selected fairways with the station operating at about 20% capacity.  We now have two new problems with some air getting sucked into the system which means the pumps start pumping air instead of water and overheat as a result.  It doesn't take much air to cause the overheating and finding it is exceptionally difficult when it isn't an obbvious pinhole as we have had before. 

And the foot valve that connects to the bottom of the suction pipe that is in the well has got a leak which will most likely be a gasket that has worn, or at least here's hoping anyway.  The foot valve is basically a check valve that stops the water from draining out of the suction line and cause the pumps to lose their prime.  The foot valve does all its work 12 feet down the well in the pump shed under water so it is quite an operation to get it out and a franna crane truck will be required to assist.

The footvalve.

The course closure on Tuesday this week gave us the opportunity to de-thatch the West greens and we were also able to get them done again on Friday afternoon during course preps for round one of the championships.  As I mentioned last week you get a far superior result when the greens are dry hence the confidence of going out the day before round one.  In contrast to the River greens there was no sand applied to the West as the surface is so tight there is virtually nowhere for the sand to go so it sits on the surface and then really interferes with the mowers.  Good luck to all competitors in round one tomorrow, we think the course has come up a treat and is good to go!!