Making An Impact With XGD Fairway Drainage

XGD has been very fortunate to get a winter project on the fairways at the highly acclaimed Alotian Club in Roland, Arkansas. Initially, they signed on for over 20,000 lineal feet of XGD fairway drainage. After we got one partial hole completed in December, the club has significantly increased the scope of work, and we have had to mobilize more staff to the project.

XGD Projects Manager Matt Magarian has been on site and with his new iphone, I have been pestering him for more telling pictures and video of our unique subsurface internal drainage process, and he has come through with flying colours, as can be seen by the following picture exhibiting the striking difference between a drained fairway area and an undrained area:

If you look closely on the right half of the picture you can see the XGD fairway drainage laterals terminating just short to the middle of the picture.
The dark colour of the zoysiagrass fairway on the left exhibits how wet they truly are, as the gravitational groundwater table is right at the surface. Also, notice Matt terminated the XGD laterals at the base of the slope, as initially we went after the wettest areas of these fairways. Yet, even after a heavy precipitation event, the surface water may have runoff the top of the slope, but the groundwater sure has not.

Over the holidays the management staff and owner of the Alotian Club, drove out on the fairways with golf carts after a 2" rain event. As evidenced above on this hole, they could only drive on the areas where Matt had drained, and couldn't drive on some of the normally higher ground areas, as the water table was at the surface. Hence, the proof was in the pudding so to speak, and their desire to have more consistent playing conditions drove them to increase the scope of work.

One final note, one flaw of zoysiagrass might be that once it gets wet it is highly unmanageable as compared to most other warm and even cool season grasses, especially so during dormancy, as is the case during our project at Alotian. Matt's photo certainly illustrates the impact our XGD fairway drainage can have, so please feel free to contact us or the Alotian Club if you desire some of the finest turf conditions at your club or sports field. For more information, on the specific spacing and techniques used at Alotian please review my December blog on XGD Fairway Drainage Results which details the specifications we used at Alotian.

Over and Out, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

The Longue Vue Club EXisting Greens Drainage

I wanted to show a few pictures of this grand old club in the Pittsburgh area, The Longue Vue Club . This sleeper of a club also boasts one of the golf worlds top 10 clubhouses, for those that are in to that kind of thing. Most of my readers are in to golf course architecture, and this club boasts a virtually untouched(greens) A.W. Tillinghast gem:

The above pic shows a work in progress, but notice the mild berm/mounding around the back of the green which does continue around the entire left side. Several of these types of greens exist at Longue Vue which serve to cut off the surface water from the surrounding hilly terrain before it gets close to the greens surface. As well, the club has already installed interceptor drains inside the mounding to try and cut off the gravitational groundwater which is causing sidehill seepage on to the greens surface. But, that has not even proved to solve the entire problem, as the club has chosen to move forward with our internal, subsurface greens drainage system as the last step in their process to firm up their classic putting surfaces for the long term.

This finished pic above illustrates the walk down from the cart path where I took the pic. There is no berm or mounding encircling this green as the terrain behind is only rising 10', and not close to 100'. However, an interceptor drain is still needed here in the collar to prevent the subsurface groundwater from bleeding on to the greens surface between our XGD laterals.

So again, reach out to us as hundreds of other clubs have, to discuss a possible solution to your clubs drainage issues. And stay tuned as I show some more miraculous fairway drainage pictures where we have  allowed clubs to provide premium playing conditions immediately after heavy precipitation events. Lets face it, for the sport of golf to continue sustainably, the ability to provide more playable golf days on the calendar will serve both public and private facilities well over the long term.

Bye for now, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

XGD Fairway Drainage Results

We received  this video yesterday from superintendent Jim Colo from the ultra-exclusive Alotian Club near Little Rock, Arkansas. It is pretty well self explanatory:

Matt Magarian and his crew, just arrived here a few weeks ago after being frozen out up in Chicagoland. The fairways at Alotian are zoysia and that explains the dormant look. In these particular heavy clay soil conditions, we chose to use an 8' spacing for our 2" XGD laterals, installed at a minimum depth of 16", and back filled with a free draining sand percing at about 18"/hour, with sod lift and relay. The only thing left do at this point is to install some rodent guard protection at the outlet pipe to ensure the long term success of the drainage system.

This internal subsurface drainage system's main thrust is to remove the useless gravitational groundwater, which in turn lowers the groundwater table, allowing for movement of surface water into the subsoil and in to the soil between our laterals, and ultimately in to the XGD drainage lateral from the bottom up, not from the top down. This simple drainage theory allows us to return the sod over top of the XGD laterals, and we don't get caught up in impeding surface water flow, by reinstalling the sod folks, again, groundwater drainage is bottom up and not top down, despite what you may believe, or learned in turf school. I will quantify that statement by acknowledging that fairway drainage systems with solid pipe and surface inlets and/or catch basins installed in hollows or low spots is top down drainage. But, that has produced some of the problems they are experiencing at Alotian, and we have been contracted to supplement this type of "top down" drainage with our XGD System. We are also pulling out several catch basins, and perforating them and back filling around them with pea stone to alleviate the soggy conditions immediately around these basins, caused by the trapped groundwater.

Matt will be returning in the new year to complete the rest of this winter project, with the scope of work including over 20,000 lineal feet of 2" XGD, and some 4" interceptors and mainlines, with some catch basin repair and enhancement.

So please reach out to us so we might be able to help you bring your fairways up another notch, and help provide those firm, fast, sustainable turf conditions, that ultimately will require less inputs in the future.

Bye for now, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

Installation Crew Updates

Here it is today, December 12, and all six of our crews are still hard at it, although the end may be near for three of them any day now.  Matt Magarian's Chicagoland crew has downsized and moved to The Alotian Club, near Little Rock, AR and they have been working on a fairly substantial fairway XGD project that will take them through the end of February:

These dormant Zoysiagrass fairways are a tough cut with the Miltona sod cutter, but as you can see the detail this sod cut provides is world class.
There is a great story behind this highly exclusive golf club built in 2004 by Little Rock billionaire Warren Stephens, and designed by Tom Fazio. The Alotian Club's name is derived from a group of wayfaring golfers, including Stephens, who set out to play the best courses in America. The trips became known as the "America's Lights Out Tour"(ALOT). Over time, members began calling themselves Alotians, hence the name of this golfing gem.

Mark Rowan's crews just finished most all of the greens at Elmwood Country Club and moved to Fenway GC, also in Westchester county, above NY. They may have hit a snag here though as the greens sod is proving too frozen to cut. The club has covered a few greens in anticipation of holding some heat in, and we will try again tomorrow morning. Both Elmwood CC and Fenway are both classic old A.W. Tillinghast tracks.

Jim Phelps and crew just put a ribbon on a six green/approach project on Long Island at North Hills Country Club , this club originally formed in 1927, and moved to their current location in 1961 when Robert Trent Jones built their new facility. Jim has since moved on with his crew this week to assist in finishing up at Fenway.

Finally, Tom Hundley and his crew are just about completing their internal subsurface greens drainage installation at Talbot Country Club on Maryland's eastern shore. As in most of the turfgrass business this past year, it has been a long and trying time to try and complete most all projects on time and in our usual precise manner. But, we couldn't be happier, as we have been able to service most all of our scheduled clients, save for some projects being pushed to the spring, which happens most years anyways.

Regards, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

Late Season XGD

Matt Magarian and Jesus Bautista just wrapped up this five green project at River Forest Country Club in Elmhurst, IL in the western suburbs of Chicago:

Matt's other crew wrapped up at the Old Elm Club over the holiday weekend, and both crews are working hard at all the greens at Hinsdale GC trying to finish before the December freeze up.

Sort of in the mid Atlantic to Midwest Region XGD Crew supervisor Tom Hundley is putting a bow on the 9 greens in Pittsburgh at the Longue Vue Club, a real sleeper of a club designed by A.W.Tillinghast. Later this week he heads to Marylands Eastern Shore to begin greens at Talbot CC.

Up in the Northeast, Mark Rowan has been busy completing XGD fairway drainage projects at Hartford GC and Mount Kisco CC in upper Westchester county.Along with installing some internal subsurface greens drainage at Bedford Golf & Tennis Club, before beginning all the greens at Elmwood Country Club. Further east in the Hamptons, Jim Phelps and Trent Bartman tackled some greens at the The Maidstone Club and Noyac CC, before heading back west to the Queens area and beginning a project for the North Hills GC.

Now, as you can see we are trying to cover a lot of ground over the next few weeks here at XGD, and drop us a line if you might like to stop by some of our installs to get a first hand peak at our process to determine if our unique subsurface drainage operation might aid your facility in bringing your greens to the next level.

Cheers, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

Hinsdale Golf Club Classic XGD

Matt Magarian's Chicagoland XGD install crew led by Jesus Bautista recently began their 18 green/approach project at this historic old tract in the West suburbs about a week ago. This club originally broke ground in 1898 right beside their present location. Popular architect of his time, Herbert J. Tweedie, laid out the original 9 hole tract before the the last 9 holes emerged a few years later.

Interestingly enough, TDIGolf completed a bunker restoration here about five years ago with architect Billy Fuller and they look like they were just completed, a real testament to superintendent Bob Maibusch and his stellar staff. However, after two straight dreadful summers weather wise, Hinsdale GC was looking to take their old pushup greens to another level. This is when they contacted us, and several of our Chicagoland clients, to see if our internal subsurface greens drainage process might be the answer they were looking for. As you can see by the video below, taken  just two hours after we left #1 greensite, that it appears at least the playability of the green after the non-invasive XGD surgery is no longer in question:

Once Matt's other crew finishes up their project at Old Elm, they will be joining up for a two crew assault on the 18 greens at Hinsdale after Thanksgiving.
So please reach out to us if you might want to stop by some of our installs taking place in your part of the world, as we presently have a crew in Pittsburgh and 3 crews in the NY Met area as well.

Regards, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer