What Is The Value Of Existing Greens Drainage?
We get this question a lot?
The value of an internal subsurface greens drainage system like XGD is really hard to quantify due to these reasons:
1) XGD is completely hidden in the soil. Not unlike irrigation, it is hard for a client to see the value in our unique drainage restoration process if they never observed the installation.
2) It is so unglamorous. Most golfing members at clubs we have installed at, don’t even know they have XGD on their greens because we install during the golfing off season, and they weren’t around to witness the install.
3) Unlike fungicide applications or other spray tank applications, there is virtually no research conducted on any of the lasting early or later effects of greens drainage.
4) XGD does it’s thing, during the downpour of a heavy precipitation event, rarely even club superintendent’s are around when a greens soil reaches field capacity and empties the bathtub in less than a 20 minute period. In short, no one is there to see the results, and clients often call and say they never see water exiting the XGD outflow?
Now, this an XGD problem and not a client problem, and we need to do a better job educating everyone on all the hidden benefits of our internal greens drainage process. Honestly, someone not extolling the benefits of XGD Systems is simply ignoring the three most important basic principles of golf course construction and ongoing maintenance: i)Drainage, ii)Drainage, iii)Drainage as proclaimed by every turf expert in the industry. XGD will not hurt your greens, and make them less valuable or harder to manage, and anyone saying so doesn’t deserve the platform they are speaking from IMHO.
In summary let me leave you with this eye candy from the Toronto Golf Club, an installation we completed on all 18 greens in 2009 in conjunction with a major restoration completed with TDIGolf. I wonder if this club is happy with it’s decision to modernize their putting surfaces through the use of XGD Systems?
H.S. Colt would roll over in his grave if he got wind of someone rebuilding all his glorious greens here, thankfully that was not the case and Toronto GC still has most all of their greenpads intact. This is, and should be the goal of any club wishing to modernize. After all, how many of us are still driving around in cars from the 1920’s, a select few of course.
Cheers, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer
