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St Mellion Golf & Country Club

St Mellion – Irrigation September 2008

St Mellion Golf & County Club is hosting The English Open in 2009 and has improved many aspects to the already impressive Nicklaus and Old Courses.  Part of the improvement has been the installation by Ocmis of a state of the art Toro Site Pro computerised automatic irrigation system.

St Mellion Golf and Country Club is part of the Crown Golf Group. Through the Toro Red Iron Deal with Crown Golf the choice of equipment was automatic. Irritech designed the system and supervised the installation on behalf of Crown Golf, and Ocmis won the contract for the installation on a competitive tender. The selection process focussed on the difficulties of installing such a comprehensive system to the two courses, and experience showed that it would not be possible to install the scheme through the winter months and achieve the level standard of finish the was required. The rocky ground conditions, steep slopes and comprehensive underground drainage system on the site meant that a summer installation was the only option. The irrigation was therefore combined with remodelling and a major refurbishment of the course together with works on the clubhouse, and £15million project.

The pumpset installed at St Mellion consists of three 18.5kw Lowara SV4605/2F185T pumps to deliver 135m³/hr and one Lowara SV418F30T jockey pump. These are controlled by variable speed drives which ensure that the pumps will only deliver the amount of flow actually required by the irrigation system. The pump controls are linked to the Toro GDC controller to provide a fully integrated system. When the Course Manager sets the irrigation programme for the night, the computer will run the sprinklers in a sequence that maximises the pump flow and minimises the overall run time. The Toro GDC will constantly monitor the available flow and adjust the number of sprinklers operating. This ensures the power used and the wear of the system is minimised.

The sprinklers installed around both courses are Toro 800 series, 810G and 2001 series.  There is a combination of both full and part circle units to enable even distribution of water to all parts of the course.

Ocmis have more experience installing the Toro GDC system than any other UK contractor, and have fully trained and experienced people involved in the installation and servicing of these systems. Ocmis soldered all the cable joints on the Toro PE sheathed cable to ensure absolute integrity. This installation technique exceeds the Toro requirements and ensures that the maximum reliability and benefits of the system are achieved. The GDC was installed with the Toro radio remote control system, to enable green keepers to operate sprinklers from hand held radios around the course. A weather station was also installed to enable soil moisture deficits for the course to be calculated, and this together with the GDC controller will enable accurate weather and water use records to be kept.

The very hard ground conditions at St Mellion meant that the pipe work on the Nicklaus Course has been installed with Rock Wheels. Ocmis have several of these machines, which grind the rock up enabling the material to be returned to the trench.

Ocmis also have a number of 130-150hp tracked moleploughs which were used to install pipework around the remainder of both the Nicklaus and the Old Course which, with the use of rollers, ensures minimum ground disturbance.

Ocmis use a specialist trench line compactor wheel which is the first of its kind in the UK. This ensures all the trench arisings go back into the trench to avoid trenches sinking and also the need to cart excess material away.

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