The Hurricane Ian Golf Course Recovery

Elliot Garrison grew up in nearby Bradenton. As a kid, he got interested in plants after working in his parents’ greenhouse and eventually made his way into the turf business. He worked for a time at Gasparilla Golf Club when he was young. Then he was on to Isleworth, Atlanta Athletic Club, and Dunwoody Country Club—where he was superintendent and oversaw installation of a new Rain Bird® golf irrigation system.

Thus, he was well-prepared to return to Gasparilla, a bit of a hidden Pete Dye gem located on an impossibly beautiful island at the tip of Boca Grande. He arrived in mid-2022, charged with planning and executing a modernization of Dye’s design.

“We knew that the golf course, particularly irrigation, needed to be modernized,” says Garrison. “We had a 19-year-old hydraulic irrigation system with all PVC mainlines and laterals. We were constantly seeing issues. So, we made our plans to install new irrigation and renovate the course in 2024.” They reached out to architect Tripp Davis, who had experience with artfully updating Pete Dye’s golf course designs, and began the planning process.

But the best-laid plans of Florida golf clubs are often disrupted by weather. In this case, the island was pounded by Hurricane Ian in late September 2022.

“We took it on the chin pretty good,” says Garrison of the devastation. “But we very quickly decided to hit the gas pedal on the restoration.” They went back to the drawing board and put together a plan in about 30 days. And they assembled an all-star team to support the project.

Assembling a Team for the Gasparilla Golf Course Renovation

Garrison had just been through a full golf course irrigation renovation at Dunwoody, so he was already very familiar with the options. He worked closely with legendary irrigation consultant Paul Granger, did the research, and confirmed that the Rain Bird two-wire system was right for his new club. His local distributor, FIS Outdoor, ramped up quickly, and he was able to hire Total Turf for construction and Leibold Irrigation for the installation. Just 60 days after the massive storm, they were underway.

Garrison credits Josh Sealey of FIS with getting them the myriad of components they needed for the job against all odds. “Josh played a critical role in managing the deliveries and getting us what we needed. We got stuff in waves, but there was never a time we had to stop and wait. Leibold moved quickly, and FIS and Rain Bird kept right up and came through for us.”

Sealey says Garrison’s experience mattered most. “Luckily, Elliot had Rain Bird before because we were just getting started when the storm came,” he says. “Things were extremely fast-moving after that, so his experience with the system was invaluable. It was pedal to the metal.”

Careful installation was the priority from Sealey’s perspective. “Our main concern was making sure we could protect the two-wire—the Rain Bird IC—from any slicing or damage during install because it’s so salty there. But with an installer like Leibold, you don’t really have to worry about it. They’re so good at what they do.”

Creating a Simple, Dependable Two-Wire Irrigation System

Paul Granger has consulted with 57 of the Golf Digest Top 100 clubs, and he’s legendary for telling it like it is. “The timeline on this was incredible,” he says. “Fortunately, I knew Elliot from his time at Dunwoody, and we really clicked, which was good because we had to put everything together in weeks instead of years.”

Granger keeps it simple. “Our designs are really pretty standardized in terms of spacing. We only use herringbone systems, mainlines, and laterals, and each lateral has its own valve. Elliot liked that because he could shut off one lateral at a time.”

What did the irrigation veteran learn from this project? “No matter how bad the circumstances can be, if you have the right people, you can make it work.”

Why was Rain Bird the right choice for the Gasparilla golf course renovation? “One of the things I love about the IC system is that it’s a true two-wire,” says Garrison. “We’re an island off an island, and we don’t have great cell or Wi-Fi service. But with the two-wire design, we can operate seamlessly.”

Garrison and the club also liked the clean look of the Rain Bird system. “It was important to me that the technology not have the intrusiveness of the boxes everywhere. I’ve had members say it doesn’t even feel like you have an irrigation system anymore. It’s a cleaner-looking landscape out there, and people notice it.”

Finally, they wanted dependable simplicity. “The other thing about the two-wire system I love is the simplicity. It’s super easy to train employees on CirrusPRO. It’s an intuitive software platform, and five of us are using it out here every day via phones and tablets.”

Garrison loves the instant access to key information. “Being able to pull up the map in the field and make immediate changes as needed, check voltage, check head status with the touch of a finger was a game-changer. It’s transparent. You can see the status of any head, any time. It’s a tool that makes it so much easier for a lot of people to use.”

The New Rain Bird Pump Station

The team essentially started from scratch with one exception. After the storm, they got the old pump station started again, but nothing else was usable. They decided to work with the old pump station until they could fully assess their needs and create a customized design to serve as the heart of the golf course. “I really wanted to take my time with the pump station and build something specific to our needs.”

Garrison says it was a great learning experience to compare options for the station, including Rain Bird. “We visited the Rain Bird pump station team in Tucson and learned a ton from their in-house expert, Jim Banis. It was like we built the station together based on our specific needs. It wasn’t just a pump station in a box. It was a boutique design that addressed everything: seals, VFDs, shafts, hardware, filters … even the paint color. It was almost like a workshop to go through every aspect of the prospective and put together a station that’s a perfect fit for us.”

As a result of that process, his new Rain Bird pump station has components built for saltwater-resistant irrigation; plus, they installed specific filters to cleanse the effluent. “We know our holding pond gets dirty, so the filters are set to backwash every eight hours. There’s a lot less debris in the water now.”

Using Rain Bird Rotors and Heads for the Design

Gasparilla now has about 1,340 Rain Bird 752 heads with a rotor that can be adjusted to be full- or part-circle. “I wanted everything to be uniform,” says Garrison. “I wanted a rotor that could be adjusted easily and was durable. We used a handful of 952s on the croquet courts, but everything else is the same 752. It’s simple and reliable.”

That made things simpler for Tripp Davis. “The 752s can throw 30 to 84 feet, so he had a lot of artistic freedom, especially around greens complexes,” Elliot says. “I knew that whatever design he came up with, we could have head coverage for it. There was really never a point where we couldn’t accommodate what he wanted to do.”

Garrison says the design team also went the extra mile in terms of grounding. “We get a lot of lightning strikes down here. This system is grounded every 12 heads. We’ve had direct strikes but haven’t lost one ICI. The durability is second to none, and that’s a big comfort when a storm is headed your way.”