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Queenstown, Otago, New Zealand
Jake Miller is a turf manager with over 2 decades of experience in the field. His career focuses on producing world class turf and garden surfaces for his clients. He holds a bachelors degree (Lv6) in Sports and Urban Turfgrass Management and a Minor (Lv4) in Soil Science (North Dakota State University, 2009).His expertise is in mountain based regions. He is also an expert in irrigation systems programing, troubleshooting, design and installation.

Irrigation - Pressurizing Victory Ranch Golf Club

Today we are set to start the pressurization process of the irrigation system here at Victory Ranch. We have a Toro Site Pro central control computer, wall-to-wall Toro 835s heads, and a very large pump station loaded with Flotronics pumps and controllers.

Update: 2:45 pm
So far we have the majority of holes are opened up and a good flow of around 580gpm. I'm working on massaging the air out of the lateral pipes.  We have vast elevation changes on the course (some 500ft) and that can lead to hazardous air pockets in the lines. To combat that I've toggled on heads at the ends of laterals to try to ease the air out slowly. If you wait until the pressure is at the max (140psi) and pop up a head, you will most certainly rip the top right off and have a geyser on your hands. Nobody wants that. More to come as the day goes on. 

Update: 8:45 pm
The system is fully operational and pressured up! Currently, we are topping the higher elevation holes with a flow of around 2600gpm and a pressure holding steady at 146psi. We ended up with only three breaks from the overwintering. One spider cracked pipe and two cracked heads. All in all the whole process went very smoothly.


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