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Royal Dornoch Golf Club

Royal Dornoch Golf Club

The irrigation system at Royal Dornoch Golf Club was leaking, unreliable and did not provide the coverage or level of control that is required by golf clubs that need to provide excellent playing surfaces year round. In 2006 the club decided to upgrade the irrigation system in a phased programme and discussed the proposed works with Toro, with whom they have a Toro Red Iron agreement. Adrian Mortram of Robin Hume Associates worked with the club and Toro to design a scheme and administer the competitive tender process for installation of the system.

The Club wanted to target expenditure at the critical areas, and it was decided that if the pumps and control system were upgraded together with the system on the Championship 18 hole course in a first phase of work, this would make the system reliable and give immediate benefits. Three holes of the Struie Course integrate with the main course around the pump station location and therefore the final body of work included the fairways, greens and tees on 21 holes, a new pump station, pump house and a new control system.

Ocmis won the tender for the project after discussing installation techniques and the experience Ocmis have installing large irrigation systems to prestigious courses. Ocmis also offer regionally based service support throughout the UK and have a service base in Edinburgh to support Royal Dornoch. Ocmis have extremely experienced and conscientious installation staff and a wide range of specialist machines and equipment that provide the client with reassurance the project will be completed on programme and to a very high standard.

Whilst the ground on most of the site is sand, there are areas of pebbles and stones that are very hard. Ocmis were able to moleplough all the pipe work on the project with their specialist high frequency moleploughs; the reinstatement over the whole project was undertaken to a very high standard.

Toro supplied all the specialist equipment through their UK Distributor, Lely UK. The equipment included the GDC control system and cable as well as the sprinklers and automatic valves. This Toro GDC was to be the first installed and commissioned in Europe, and it worked first time. Ocmis’ attention to detail and cable jointing techniques contribute to the security and reliability of the whole control system. The extremely sensitive electronics in the new generation of irrigation control systems provide advanced diagnostics that are able to detect faults throughout the electrical system. Ocmis solder all the cable joints before fitting the manufacturer’s water proof connectors. Soldering exceeds the specification required by Toro but provides the long term reliability that is the hall mark of an Ocmis system.

John Duncan, Secretary Manager at Royal Dornoch congratulated Ocmis, their courteous staff “who clearly took great professional pride in doing a first class job”. He said “the system is working well and has proved its worth with no glitches. Recovery of the turf was very quick due to the quality of the installation work and the method of installation”.

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