It has been a busy week at the golf course as far as golfers. It has also been a busy week with a lot of irrigation problems. I know, I’m just as shocked about this as the rest of you. The pumphouse had a power supply panel that died which caused no automatic control over the pumps in operation. I was able to water the greens in manual mode overnight Tuesday. I monitored the irrigation system through the night and was very happy to get some much needed water on the greens finishing stations about 8:00 AM.
Last night I went back to start the irrigation system and the second pump arced a bright blue light and tripped the breaker switch. Next, the pet cock bleeder valve on top of the other pump started leaking. The night ended very poorly with no irrigation.
This morning, the irrigation tech was on site to repair the faulty control panel and assist with several other problems in the pumphouse. The second pump is going directly to ground on all three lines which tells us the motor is shot. This pump has been eliminated from operation. The other pump was repaired this morning and by early afternoon there was water flowing. However, I can only run the pump in hand mode and 50% capacity.
I have been watering greens and tees this afternoon and started on a couple of fairways a short time ago. I hope to get through the entire course by morning. It’s frustrating but nothing that I haven’t dealt with before.
We will be pulling the bad pump tomorrow and get an estimate from Pixler Electric. The current thought to this happening is a mouse chewed on the wiring and shorted the pump to ground. Once they have a chance to look at it then we will see if insurance covers that scenario.
The good news is the irrigation contractor will be here on Tuesday to begin installing the new hardware for the irrigation system. Some days it feels like the irrigation system has been exposed to the COVID 19 for many years.
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 