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By Design
Bonita Bay Club has implemented
a new state-of-the-art irrigation
system to help reduce water use,
electricity and maintenance costs
CASE STUDY
Bonita Bay Club
|
Stuart Hackwell and Matt Corentin
On a mission
to save water
B
onita Bay Club in Southwest
Florida is on a mission to deliver
top caliber playing conditions
while aggressively managing water use
on five championship golf courses.
Originally envisioned with naturalized
areas and native buffers between
the holes, Bonita Bay Club achieved
certified Audubon Cooperative
Sanctuary status in 1995. Carefully
managing resources has been integral
to their core beliefs since inception.
The three West courses, designed
in the 1990s by Arthur Hills, ASGCA,
incorporated irrigation systems with
standard design practices of that era.
A typical golf course irrigation system
was designed with approximately 1,100
large sprinklers at 80 feet spacing. Each
sprinkler used 60 gallons of water per
minute. Two sprinklers operated on
each station and, with large radius of
throw, watered large areas of turf –
even if the objective was to water one
small, dry spot.
Hal Akins, Director of Golf
Course Operations at the club,
recognized the need to reduce water
consumption, improve playability,
reduce irrigation repairs and save
electricity. He embarked on a plan
to upgrade the original irrigation. In
2012, Dave Ragan of Ragan Technical
Solutions was hired to design a
modern state-of-the-art system that
would achieve all of these objectives.
The new design specified smaller-
gallonage, high-efficiency sprinklers,
spaced at 65 feet, with individual
sprinkler head control, to provide
precision irrigation coverage.
Bonita Bay Club completed the
first phase of the renovation of the
Marsh course in fall 2013. After a
thorough review, Akins selected a
Rain Bird® Integrated Control (IC)
System™ with a 3,000gpm Rain Bird
pump station. The IC System™ has
intelligent control modules located
at each sprinkler, eliminating field
satellites and 90 percent of the wire
compared to traditional satellite
control systems. When Akins first
started evaluating sprinkler systems
for the renovation, the IC System was
relatively new. “When I first learned
of this technology and its abilities, I
was excited to know that I could get
away from control boxes in the field
and all the associated maintenance
costs,” he says. “At that point it was
a matter of evaluating the different
control systems on the market. After
a lot of research I chose the Rain Bird
IC System because I considered it the
most technologically advanced and
proven system. And we have been
extremely happy with our choice. I
tell folks that the system is ‘simple yet
sophisticated’ – the components of
the system are few and simple, yet its
capabilities are very sophisticated.”
Immediately after installation, the
club began seeing results. It has high-
efficiency sprinklers, closer spacing,
single-head control, and – with Cirrus,
advanced computer control software –
the system provides targeted precision
irrigation. Akins found that it was
possible to control water better, dry
out the course when needed and still
keep it looking good. Akins states:
“It’s a balance between playability
and aesthetics; you want it looking
good, and play firm. We have a diverse
membership here at Bonita Bay Club
and members have high expectations.”
Fertilizer can now be applied
through the irrigation system,
something they had stopped doing
with the old system due to poor
sprinkler uniformity and a lack of
control. Akins finds that there is more
effective response of fertilizer – better
results with the same inputs.
Taking targeted irrigation to a
new level, Akins installed smaller
spray zones to irrigate the tops of
mounds. Each spray has a low-flow