Hof Hausen
vor der Sonne Golf Club
Opened in 1996, Hof Hausen vor der Sonne Golf sits in the richly wooded uplands of Germany, a region famed for its mineral springs and spa resorts and steeped in ancient history—with a castle, abbey, monuments, and Roman fortifications.
On the southern slopes of the Taunus mountain range, only a short drive from Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, the course has a parkland landscape with mature trees, water features, and flower meadows, with views of Frankfurt’s modern skyline.
Introduction
Course Superintendent Christian Mueller is responsible for maintaining the 18-hole championship course and the 9-hole par 3 course to desired tournament standards. He and his greenkeeping team had increasingly found that their old golf course irrigation system was complicated to operate and didn’t enable course irrigation to be adjusted and targeted.
Here’s how they resolved their challenges.
Challenge: Eliminate over- and underwatering
While the rationale for renovating a golf course irrigation system is often to reduce costs and reliance on mains water, the primary objective in this instance was to improve playing surfaces year-round by eliminating overwatering.
Because cables and rotors had been positioned incorrectly, the old impact sprinklers distributed water unevenly across the course, resulting in areas that were overwatered and others that were far too dry.
Solution: Provide individual head control with optimized water placement
As part of the renovation preparation, the installation team mapped out where all the old rotors and cables were located. The system was reconfigured to allow for new cabling and approximately 700 repositioned rotors to be installed.
“When Stock Beregnungstechnik introduced me to the Rain Bird IC technology and the new CirrusPRO software, I was excited about the possibilities,” Mueller says.
To keep renovation costs under control, the in-house greenkeeping team completed all the groundwork, digging out and removing the old rotors and cabling. And by only closing one hole at a time, disruption to play was carefully minimized.
How we did it: Installation of a Rain Bird® IC System™ with new 900/950 Series Rotors
Rain Bird® 900/950 Series IC Rotors were installed on fairways in a double row formation and on greens, adding back rotors for surrounds and approaches where required. Rain Bird 552 Series Rotors with IC valves were installed on the tees.
Stock Beregnungstechnik supervised the four-month installation, which included a Rain Bird IC System™ with CirrusPRO™ Central Control software, chosen for its easy-to-use, intuitive interface. The ability to control every single rotor head from any location and make adjustments quickly on a mobile device makes fine-tuning the system fast and easy.
“The ease of use of the IC technology, plus managing the irrigation system with CirrusPRO from anywhere in the world, make efficiently handling our valuable water resource even easier for me,” Mueller says. “Thanks to IC technology, errors are detected before they occur, giving me full control at all times.”
Results
Thanks to the efficient new Rain Bird irrigation system, the greenkeeping team at Hof Hausen vor der Sonne Golf now has an easier way to control and adjust water placement to maintain pristine playing conditions year round—and in the process, it has reduced reliance on a precious natural resource.
Testimonial
“Thanks to IC technology, I have full control at all times.”
-Christian Mueller
Head Greenkeeper
Hof Hausen vor der Sonne Golf Club
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