Golf Course Architecture - Issue 62: October 2020

73 Photo: Paul Robinson/Magnetic Studio watering, until their hand was forced by the 2018 drought. Naturally, one of the questions that is asked on any irrigation installation is ‘Where is the water coming from?’ At Lincoln, this was a real issue, as, again, they had calculated their need for the greens and tees, and had sourced enough water for that. However, some digging around by Mellors revealed that an underground watercourse flowed beneath the golf course, so the club was able to tap into it and divert some of the flow to an irrigation reservoir. Working with irrigation contractor Arden Lea and an independent advisor, the club had a plan for fairway installation drawn up. This plan featured a double row system with a number of part-circle heads to ensure accurate distribution of water, but there was one key problem: the cost was beyond Lincoln’s resources. It was at this point that we at Hunter became more closely involved in the project. By using our G885D decoder in head rotors in a single row, controlled by our Pilot-CCS software system, we were able to achieve the coverage and uniformity the club needed at a significantly more affordable cost. The system was installed early during the 2019 season, although getting contractors was something of a challenge – Arden Lea, like all their competition, were very busy at the time because of fallout from 2018’s drought. Nevertheless, they came in and installed the new system six holes at a time, and Kitchinson and his team followed them through overseeding the newly irrigated fairways. It was an interesting project – when we went in to mark out the new sprinkler positions, club staff had to tell us exactly where the fairway lines should be, because they had lost so much grass there was no distinction between fairway and rough. Several months on, the fairways were back in good condition and the club is now in a strong position to move forward. They are working with architect Ken Moodie on a significant programme of design changes, with one aim being to restore the heathland environment to the course. The success of this project is testimony to all those involved, but especially Rob and Adrian from the club, who ensured that, despite the immediate need to restore fairways to good playing conditions, nothing was done on the hop, and the whole project was thought through so it was in the best long term interests of the club. We at Hunter are proud to have been involved. GCA Mark Ganning is northern Europe area manager for Hunter Industries Lincoln GC installed a new irrigation system in 2016 to cover greens and tees, but with a mainline pipe large enough to allow the club to extend the system to fairways after the 2018 drought