Another Drainage Update...

Now that I've returned from the Golf Industry Show, I'd like update you on the drainage issues we are experiencing.  We had a representative from our course project drainage contractor, TDS, out to Quilchena on Thursday, February 23rd to address our concerns.  There is no doubt that the swale directly in front of #9 green will require an additional collector line to be installed to handle the 20+ year old drainage that is failing.  This collector will run from the left side bunker across to an existing collector near the right side bunker and any old tiles will be tied into it.  This single collector line will be sized appropriately to handle the large amount of water that puddles in front of #9 green.  We measured this to be approximately 31 metres in length. 

What we discovered on another portion of #9 and on #18 was a completely different scenario.  We dug up across one of the recently installed slit drains and much like our greens 3 years ago, we found high thatch levels at the surface that have certainly affected the drainage system.  Here are some photos that illustrate what we saw:

dry sand in the slit drain below the saturated surface

profile of a slit drain compromised by high thatch levels at the surface

Simply put, the thatch slows down how quickly the water drains through the profile.  It will drain eventually, but definitely not as efficiently as when the drainage was newly installed.  Here is a video that shows how the surface water is having a difficult time reaching the drainage slits:

Now for some good news, routine aeration and topdressing along with an additional fairly inexpensive procedure will restore these lines to drain as they once did.  This procedure is called “sand banding”.  Sand banding is a method of creating straight sand channels (trenches) that greatly improve drainage, especially in conjunction with slit drainage systems.  The channels are trenched perpendicular to the slit drains, creating an expansive network of sand channels for surface water to infiltrate into the drainage system.  There is no drainage tile installed by this procedure and the ½” trenches heal over in no time.  Here is a YouTube video of this procedure:

 

 

We will be scheduling TDS to complete both the collector line installation and the sand banding ASAP.  We anticipate that the sand banding will prove to be an extremely effective maintenance practice for our extensive slit drainage system.  The drainage engineers, Kelly-Ami, made it clear in the original project documentation that maintenance of the installed slit drainage system is a MUST for the system to function properly and efficiently for years to come.