PROJECT OVERVIEW:

Located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, The Club at Admirals Cove offers 45 holes of premier golf to their members and guests — 18 holes on their East Course and 27 holes on the Golf Village Course. Designed by Robert von Hagge, the layout allows golfers to enjoy a unique combination of holes with each outing. But with an aging irrigation system and a discerning membership, the course and Director of Course Maintenance Blair Kirby chose to totally renovate the 27-hole Golf Village Course in 2015 to keep their playing conditions at an elite level.

CHALLENGES:

The often unpredictable weather patterns of the Florida coast placed extra demands on the irrigation system for The Club at Admirals Cove. Some rain events would impact one section of the course while leaving other areas dry. Finding a system that could precisely analyze precipitation and respond to changing conditions by automatically adjusting irrigation was critical to establishing elite playing conditions.

Beyond mother nature, The Club at Admirals Cove also faced the common challenges of renovating part of a multi-course club. While the new IC System would be used on their 27-hole Golf Village Course, the 18-hole East Course would continue operating with the existing Rain Bird system. For the sake of efficient and effective operations from day to day, they needed a solution that would allow them to run two systems without unneeded hassle.

“I needed something to lean on during the renovation, for my own comfort. With the IC System, I knew I could just walk straight in and operate without having to learn a new system.”

— Blair Kirby, Director of Course Maintenance

RESULTS:

From a custom-painted Rain Bird pump station to precision landscaping emitters throughout the property, The Club at Admirals Cove partnered with Rain Bird to build a fully-integrated irrigation system that met the exact needs of their course.

They chose the Rain Bird® IC System™ for advanced analytics and single-head control that would allow them to take irrigation precision to new heights. When paired with Rain Bird Central Control, the IC System lets them run advanced diagnostics every morning in a matter of seconds, and instantly know how much water was applied at each head and if any heads experienced issues. They also gained the power to instantly activate single or multiple heads from any mobile‑connected device, if needed. With this real-time information and advanced control at hand, Blair’s team will always be one step ahead of potential problems.

By utilizing Rain Bird’s RainWatch™ system and placing rain cans throughout the property, The Club at Admirals Cove is able to leverage intelligence built into their Central Control and adjust to rain events in real time. This allows the system to apply the proper amount of water to areas of the course that received little or no rain, while temporarily reducing or rescheduling areas that received optimal precipitation.

“We know there’s an issue before the turf ever knows there’s an issue. With the data you get from the IC System, it gets you to the problem a lot quicker.”

— Blair Kirby, Director of Course Maintenance

A big addition to the renovation was the installation of the Rain Bird pump station, allowing for the use of the Rain Bird Smart Pump™ software. This allows the course to monitor one pump station from two separate computers, rather than cutting the flow in half for both courses. With Smart Pump, each Central Control computer knows what the actual flow being used is and what is available. (Other systems use a theoretical flow potentially causing harm to the pump station.) When one course isn’t watering, the other course can use the full flow of the pump station. This type of control is unique to Rain Bird and is the biggest advantage of getting your irrigation system and pump station from one trusted manufacturer.

Rain Bird® 700 series IC rotors, with an integrated control module, were installed throughout the 27-hole course, eliminating the need for satellites or decoders. These rotors offer the flexibility to switch from full-circle to part-circle operation at the turn of a screwdriver, while maintaining the arc settings with Rain Bird’s MemoryArc™. The use of these rotors also eliminates the need to purchase multiple versions of rotors.

For The Club at Admirals Cove, the benefits go well beyond the new system on the Golf Village Course. Since all Rain Bird golf products are designed for Timeless Compatibility™, they have endless options for interchanging components between their two systems, as well as making future updates to either course.