July Heat

 Sprinkler Season at Swope

(The worst employee of Swope, Abby.)

Holy humidity. July finally showed the true colors of a Kansas City summer. The temperatures sky rocketed up to high 90's, and the humidity followed suit. Just tying your shoes outside would cause a man to sweat through his shorts. Luckily, most patrons took these days off to stay inside and avoid anything without climate control. The course doesn't have that luxury. There is no better time to be able to spot irrigation/sprinkler problems than during the dog days of summer. Somewhat comparable to 'where there's smoke, there's fire', 'where there's dead grass, there's a dead sprinkler'.

(Sprinkler on #11 with electrical issues.)

Our most common issue with irrigation are sprinkler malfunctions. Problems include: the valve from the main line to the sprinkler, the electrical control box on each individual head, the sprinkler motor malfunctioning and not turning, and a few others. Its always a process of elimination, going from most simple repair to the possibility of having to isolate an entire hole. As you could imagine, isolating an entire hole for a single sprinkler in the middle of July is daunting, so when problem can be remedied without turning off a main valve, we cross our fingers for those easy fixes. 

(A bald guy rewiring sprinkler on #17.)

(Instant gratification.)

The left sprinkler above had been inactive for years. Apparently, there hasn't been this type of heat for a few of them, and a huge dry spot appeared on the front right approach of #17. We, myself and Sam, knew that there should be a head there, but had never seen it run or where it was. After contacting multiple past superintendents, it was deemed to be a break in the wiring, causing the sprinkler to be inoperable. One remedy to this was to re-wire the dead sprinkler to a working sprinkler 30 feet away, which is exactly what we did. It was a tedious repair, but the feeling of hitting the 'Run' button in the control box and seeing the water fly is a hell of a reward. 

As always, we will continue to improve Swope Memorial Golf Course, sprinkler by sprinkler, to make it a home course to be proud of. 

Oh, and fix your divots!!!