Nelson Golf Club's Watering Scheme

Burnt-up fairways are a thing of the past at the Nelson Golf Club's Tahunanui course. This season, and in the seasons to come, water which trickles over the top of the city's reservoirs at night will be used to keep the club's fairways and greens verdant. The club recently installed a $28,000 water reticulation scheme, the most up-to-date in New Zealand, and we were invited to see it in action recently. The whole system is electronically controlled and computed and there are even sensors (irrometers) set in the green which record moisture levels and which automatically shut off when the green has received the required amount of water. A big expense, but a much-needed amenity at the course.

×

 

• 

Head greenkeeper Don Harborne sets the watering pattern in the computerised control box

×

 

• 

Sprinklers, inset around the greens, rise to spray when water pressure goes on.

×

 

• 

An irrometer which controls the moisture content of the green.

×

 

• 

A close-up of a sprinkler in operation

×

 

• 

The sprinklers are set so that every section of green is covered (fairways on the course, also, are reticulated)