As the irrigation is pushed hard to keep moisture in the rootzone it begins to show its frailties. This week we have had 2 separate burst at control boxes for tees and greens, another hose point needs replacing as this is leaking past the seal and 3 sprinkler heads need replacing, 2 of those were the old impact sprinklers on the tees. The impact sprinklers are very old, inefficient and are on a replacement schedule so these are welcome replacements. The other leaks are something we could do without, but these are common as the irrigation pipework is around 30 years old.

To keep the rest of the system going until our irrigation contractor comes to put in a new valve set we dug out the old valve set and capped the end of the main pipe. To do this we had to drain the pipework, cut the pipe before the break, glue on new fittings and then re fill the system. The new joints need around 4 hours for the glue to fully set and have strength at full pressure.
When the system was drained we took the opportunity to clean and check the suction pipe in the bottom pond which fills the storage tanks. When the filter was taken out of the basket, which keeps weeds from being sucked on to the filter, we discovered a fish had got trapped inside the basket. It certainly wouldn't help the irrigation, nor would I think it would be that nice for the fish.

The fish was returned to the pond!

Elsewhere cutting continues, although growth on the course has slowed, the entrance lane has been strimmed and tidied,  another compost tea application was made to the greens and the surrounds and approaches were fertilised using the tractor mounted sprayer, bunker edges are being strimmed and bunkers raked.