2026 Numbers to Know: It came from the pipes!

I am certainly not the only superintendent to be operating with an outdated, aging irrigation system. For anyone who has worked on a golf course with a system past its expiration date, you understand the challenges involved. For all you others who possibly have had the good fortune to work with nothing but newer systems in your golf course maintenance careers, this article might seem a bit like fiction — horror fiction, at that. But I attest that everything you are about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

OK, the “horror” thing might be stretching it a bit, but honestly, is there anything more important to a superintendent than the reliability of the irrigation system? If it’s not your No. 1, I’m sure it has to be your No. 2. Perhaps you don’t really understand this fully until you’ve had to operate with an irrigation system past its prime.

2025 was another year Avalon Golf Club had to limp through with an outdated system. The western Washington course opened in 1991 and, as you’ve no doubt guessed by now, is still operating with the original system.

This is not to say everything is original. The pump station is fairly new, and the three pumps have been replaced and upgraded a few times over the years. The software we use is newish, and the controllers on the course have also been updated.

However, the biggest thing that has not been updated during those 35 years — and the biggest part of any irrigation system — is the PVC in the ground. The pipe, along with many of the original heads and valves, are still out there in operation.

The problem associated with operating with PVC that is five, 10 or even 15 years past its expected life, depending on who you talk with, is, perhaps obviously, reliability. To be completely honest, I’m surprised that the old pipe in the ground still, for the most part, functions. Perhaps this is the problem: We haven’t gotten a full cataclysmic failure event.

What we get instead is a break here, a break there. We might go a few months in the middle of summer with no issues. But then something will happen. And then something else. What happens with most with these “breaks” is the glue at the bell-ends fails. There are a few holes on the lower end of the golf course where we have literally replaced each and every stick of pipe over the years because of this issue.

Golf courses are now, for the most part, installing HDPE when renovating or updating their systems. This pipe, although more expensive than traditional PVC (which is still an option), lasts much longer in the ground and requires significantly less maintenance.

Mathew Rico, Rain Bird Irrigation specialist at Pacific Golf and Turf in Seattle and around the greater western Washington area, is my local rep and a former superintendent. He raves about HDPE.

“Most importantly is the longevity,” he tells me. “With traditional PVC you can expect a 30-year life at best, while with HDPE we are being told to expect three times that, around 90 years.”

I don’t know about any of you, but anything with a 90-year life expectancy sounds pretty darn good to me. I mean, my goodness, I’ll probably even be retired by then!

“Fusing is an instantaneous fix for HDPE pipe,” Rico explains, “as opposed to using glue and primer everywhere and waiting for it to dry.”

And, of course, waiting for it — as is the case for us at Avalon — to someday fail.

“HDPE is more flexible as well,” Rico says, “thus easier to install. Contractors love this because they can carry it in larger pieces and you don’t have so many butt-ends that could cause water hammer issues.”

Another problem associated with an older system is the sprinkler heads and the valves. Avalon still has a fair amount of original Rain Bird 90 fairway heads that have been in the ground and throwing water for 35 years. And a pretty good amount of original gate valves are still out there as well. The failure of the original gate valves has been quite noteworthy in the last couple years. They’re dropping like flies. I truly believe we have indeed hit our life-expectancy wall with these gate valves.

Earlier, I mentioned that one of the problems with the slow failure of our PVC here at Avalon over the years is that it has been random and sporadic. A leak here, a break there. Somehow there has been a big cataclysmic failure event. The reason this “slow death” is more of a problem is that our overall ability to maintain and Band-Aid the system has perhaps been the biggest factor in ownership not pulling the trigger on a complete new system. Maybe we’ve been our worst enemy with our ability to keep the system functioning all these years.

With the price of new irrigation systems these days it’s hard to fault ownership — and I certainly don’t. I more than understand the hesitation to spend $5 million or more (we have 27 holes) on a new system when we’re still figuring out a way to make the old one work. But, like anything, this is only sustainable for so long.

Getting back to 2025 and how, exactly, we faced the challenge of this past year:

First, and perhaps most important, we now have a very experienced, professional irrigation tech in charge of the system. It’s invaluable to find someone who is experienced and skilled at maintaining an older system, and who doesn’t get overwhelmed when the crap hits the fan, who can look an irrigation break in the face on a hot day in July and tackle the problem. Oh, and then tackle the next one. And the one after that. Trust me, I know how important this is. We literally went through five or six individuals in this role over the last decade and none of them was up to this challenge. But there are people out there. It’s just a matter of getting lucky enough to find one.

Another proactive step we took this past year was beginning a plan to replace all original valves that are still out on the course. Many of them have been changed out over the years when we’ve had issues. But with gate valves, you don’t want to run into an issue when you need the valve to do its job. Fixing breaks midseason with valves that don’t work, or break just when you need them can be a bit horrific. Your pipe break issue has suddenly doubled into a pipe break repair coupled with a valve replacement. We have decided to take a proactive stance on valve replacement throughout the system, slowly making our way, replacing anything original — or, in some cases, not original but still well past its life.

Same goes with the old heads on the course. Those 35-year-old Rain Bird 90 canister type heads have been trying valiantly to continue on with their service to our golf course, but their time has either come or is nearing. Like the valves, we are making our way through replacing as many of these heads as we can. With the sprinkler heads, and the fairway heads in particular, we decided to go with refurbished heads instead of new heads for two reasons. One, cost. We can get a refurbished head for a quarter of the price of a new head. And two, because we do plan on having a new system in the future, it seems silly to put new heads out there if they might be replaced before their lifespan is even close to being up.

We also changed how we water in 2025. Unfortunately, we strayed from watering with the computer at night over the last few years. With the unpredictability of our system and that simple fact that it isn’t “tight” like a new system would be, we have more peace of mind watering from the controllers. Consider this a bit old school. But we feel we have more control over the system and how much we water when we do it ourselves. Having a couple trustworthy waterers on the crew who don’t mind coming in extremely early is essential for us. A bit anti-AI, which, frankly, sounds good to me right now.

For all its warts, 2025 included a promising note: we finally hired an irrigation designer. This is always the first step toward a new system. Get the design and the bid. See how you can make the finances and timing work in the future.

Unfortunately, our biggest challenge in 2025 is also going to be our biggest challenge in 2026. Realizing this, if not half the battle, is certainly a good portion of the battle.

Ron Furlong is the golf course superintendent at Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington, and a frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.