Golf Course Greenery
Imagine pulling up to the golf course parking lot, taking your clubs out of the car and noticing the course itself looked like a barren desert. Doesn't sound too appealing, does it?
Lush green grass, bermuda or otherwise, and surrounding vegetation such as trees and bushes, go hand in hand with golf. The only desert-looking formations one would normally see at a golf course, and try to keep out of, are those pesky sand bunkers.
The foliage of the world's prestigious golf courses doesn’t grow by itself. Golf courses where world-renowned golfers have won championships, and those where you try to improve your handicap, need an efficient, economical irrigation system. Too little water and the course will start looking like that barren desert. Too much water and the fairway's bermuda grass could start becoming like the rough.
Tending to a golf course cannot be done in autopilot, but the water irrigation system, with a proper PLC, can ease the burden.
PKM Solutions Ltd installed a Rockwell Automation® Micro850 for Woburn Golf Club's water irrigation system in Thetford, U.K., but that alone wouldn't do the job. Woburn consists of three courses, each of which has 18 holes.
They needed a texting module to start and stop the system remotely. They also needed remote notifications sent to their cell phone.
PKM Solutions chose ProSoft Technology's ILX800-SMS Texting Module. The module gave the PLC bi-directional text messaging capabilities. In fact, it was the “only PLC system that would text to each other to start and stop the other PLC.”
The golf course has three sites that work in conjunction with each other. There is a water reservoir and two filling tanks. “When one of the filling tanks is low, it sends a text message to the reservoir to fill, then a text notification to stop,” said Paul Mold, PKM Solutions Director.
The alternative would have been to run cable from the reservoir to each filling tank, which would have resulted in downtime - and golfers don't like downtime at their favorite course.
Mold said Woburn Golf Club is very pleased. "This option has saved them the expense of running long lengths of cable across their course, which would mean downtime and a lot of expense."
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