Mapping golf green drainage systems and subsurface features using ground-penetrating radar

Abstract

Good drainage is important for healthy turf and proper playing surface. Because of the aesthetic and playability considerations, most of the drainage systems in a golf course were installed underground. With time golf green drainage systems can fail or become plugged up due to improper construction and/or management. Unfortunately, many golf green drainage maps are either unavailable or inaccurate. Locating a drainage system in a green is a very time consuming and difficult job. Many golf course superintendents invested many hours in locating these pipes when drainage problems occured. Correcting the drainage problems can be destructive to the green and expensive when location of the present system is unknown. The objective of the study was to locate and map the tile drainage system under a green using a ground penetrating radar. In the study, a SIR system 2000, with a 400 MHz antenna, ground penetrating radar (GPR) was used to scan a USGA green and a California style green. The experiment was conducted at the Stone Creek golf course(SCGC) Green No. 3 (a USGA green located at Makanda, IL) and Hickory Ridge golf course (HRGC) Green No. 2 (a California green, located in Carbondale, IL). The green at the SCGC was about 500 m 2 and the one at HRGC was close to 200 m 2 . Since sprinkler heads are fixed objects around the green, they were used as permanent reference points. The golf greens were divided to form a grid system and marked with flags 1 meter apart. The green was marked and scanned. In the measurement, the scanning was completed within fifteen minutes, but it took up to 45 minutes for laying out the grid of a 500 m 2 green. Results indicated that GPR could accurately locate the rooting zone thickness, depth of gravel layer, and drainage tiles in a golf green with minimum time and disturbance.