Underground drainage systems and surface aeration are key for golf courses. The main concern for the majority of golf courses in the Lower Mainland is the control of water. For about 3 months from July to September, adding water to the turf through an underground irrigation system is critical during dry summer conditions. For the rest of the 9 months of the year, from October to June, the removal of water is even more important to maintain optimal playing conditions.
The first step to having dry turf playing conditions is to ensure that water infiltrates through the turf soil surface. This is accomplished by aeration of the turf, either solid-tine (which is typical for fairways), or hollow-tine, which is normally done to greens and tees. We also aerated and topdressed our fairways -- click here to see aeration in action.
After aeartion is done, topdressing with sand ensures good surface water infiltration year-round.
An underground drainage de-watering pipe system ensures that the water has somewhere to go once it has infiltrated through the turf surface. Both at Riverway and Burnaby Mountain Golf Courses there are thousands of meters of small diameter perforated pipes inside sand trenches that help drain away excess water.
When installing a slit drainage/dewatering system, the pipe is easily "buzzed-in” with a wheel trencher. Click here to watch a video to see this in action. These dewatering systems can remove more than 50 mm of surface and soil water in one hour.
What does surface and subsurface drainage do?
- Drainage quickly removes water from soil, and produces dry turf conditions year-round.
- Drainage produces dry turf conditions which improves playability, especially from October to June when Metro Vancouver will receive over 100cm of rainfall in 9 months.
- Drainage reduces ball plugging, increases bounce and roll on tee shots, and allows golf cart traffic on fairways year-round.
- Drainage removes water from the soil profile, which in turn increases the amount of oxygen in the soil. Plants require oxygen to survive.
- After a heavy rainfall, drainage quickly removes water and ensures the return to playable conditions, in most cases in less than 12 hours.
Drainage allows you to play golf at Burnaby’s courses with dry turf conditions all year long.