The Arabian Ranches Golf Club (managed by Troon) has just completed its largest enhancement since the opening in 2004.
The renovation was undertaken by Desert Landscape, a division of Desert Group, who completed the project two weeks ahead of schedule.
Sean Kinsley – Director of Agronomy Emaar Hospitality Group said
“Before we started, it was clear that the existing Tifeagle Bermuda turfgrass had become weakened and contaminated with off type mutations, Tifway 419 and significant Paspalum encroachment.
However, by bringing together the right expertise, we have now managed to remove this plant material along with the top 150 mm of greens/collars root zone and replaced it with a new USGA Greens Root Zone (greens core) and Red Sand (collar core), before replanting with Platinum TE Paspalum.”
The practice putting green at Arabian Ranches Golf Club was also rebuilt during the summer, whilst the driving range, turf nursery and the desert surroundings on most holes were also enhanced as part of the ambitious course improvement program.
Arabian Ranches Golf Club & turf irrigation solutions
What I miss from this renovation project story is how will they enhance their turf irrigation system and optimize their water consumption. Which irrigation scheduling techniques will they use:
- wireless SMS?
- Penman-Monteith Reference ETo?
- FRET or visual wilt-based approach?
Jalmari Talola (CEO, Soil Scout) said in his interview with the Golf Business Monitor:
Irrigation technique based on ET models are inaccurate and don’t give the needed dynamics to optimize your irrigation.
To us, any ET model appears as an outdated approach. First of all, the model was developed for giving estimates to be used for regional water resource management, and scaling it down to site level doesn’t really do the trick.
Since the evaporation exceeds annual rainfall by at least 24 inches I would not use ET models. I would test one of these sensor-based solutions as they can save them 40-50% water:
- Soil Scout;
- Toro’s Turf Guard – Wireless Soil Monitoring System
- RainBird’s SMRT-Y Soil Moisture