The incident happened on a routine morning ride around the golf course with my assistant. That day as we drove and chatted, my peripheral vision spotted a wet area on the 16th fairway. With my right hand grasping the steering wheel and my eyes forward, I reached to the floor of my utility vehicle with my left hand, grasped the handle of my trusty paint gun, and within seconds my index finger hit the trigger and I began painting another drainage project for my staff. I have to admit that I am fairly skilled at having a paint gun in my hand and in use in seconds, all without slowing down my utility vehicle. As I finished painting the project, my assistant remarked, “You know Darren, I'm worried about you.” I stopped the cart and asked, “What do you mean? What’s up?” He looked me in the eye and said, “I think you may need to attend ... meetings.” With a quizzical look on my face I said, “Huh? What meetings? He said, “You know ... drain-aholic meetings” Without missing a beat he added, “Hi, my name is Darren Davis, and I am a drain-aholic.” I had to laugh and compliment his humor. Truth be told, my assistant is not far off on his assessment. In my 21 years as the Golf Course Superintendent at Olde Florida Golf Club, I have painted, and my staff has installed over 15 miles of subsurface drainage. I give blame, or more appropriately, I give credit for my addiction to drainage to one of my former professors and mentor, the late Dr. Joesph Duich.
In 1957 Dr. Duich developed the two-year Turfgrass Management program at The Pennsylvania State University. The famed turfgrass professor was known for his wit and challenging teaching method. I can vividly recall many examples, one of which involved drainage. During a class in the fall of 1991, after my classmates and I couldn’t provide Dr. Duich with a suitable answer to his question, “What is one of the most fundamental aspects of successful turfgrass management?,” Dr. Duich informed us that the correct response was, “Drainage, drainage, drainage.” My classmates and I, who could rarely provide Dr. Duich with an acceptable answer to one of his oral pop quizzes, sat quietly, somewhat confused and definitely speechless. After what seemed liked minutes, but in hindsight was probably seconds, Dr. Duich continued, “It’s not rocket science. If you want to be successful at growing turfgrass, you need air drainage, surface drainage and subsurface drainage.”
The steps in our drainage installation at Olde Florida are as follows: Step one is to figure out the best method to get water from “point A to point B”. After I paint out the drainage project, which is the easy part, my assistants consult our irrigation as-built, a wire tracer, etc., to determine if there are any subsurface items that the staff will need to avoid. Next, a sod cutter with a 12-inch blade is used to remove the turfgrass. The soil is then excavated to a depth of 16 inches and a width of 12 inches. Flexible, perforated drainage pipe is laid in the bottom center of the trench and pea gravel is carefully installed and compacted.
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| Drainage project being installed on #6, July 7, 2014 |
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