Royal Dornoch has become the first golf course in Europe to benefit from Toro’s revolutionary new GDC-controlled irrigation system.
The Highland club’s famously challenging Championship Course is now equipped with a PC-based GDC system, which uses Toro’s proven SitePro central control. The other 18-holer on the site, the Struie Course, currently has three holes run by GDC, with a view to becoming fully operational within the next two years.
GDC has been hailed as the most flexible, easy to install and simple to use golf irrigation controller ever to be developed. Toro has used proven technology to create a low cost decoder system which uses a single two-core wire path. It makes golf course irrigation simpler than ever before and means very few limitations as to what can be achieved. GDC significantly reduces installation and cable costs, enables optimum use of water and gives flexibility of design and configuration.
Course manager Eion Riddell said, “It’s fantastic to have completed the first phase of the installation. We needed to replace our old irrigation system with something more suited to the needs of 21st century golf. GDC is a state-of-the-art solution; it gives us better control and coverage. We can now water with single sprinkler heads, rather than blocks of three, which means spot watering is much more accurate, and it saves water too.
“Unlike our old system, we can also now water all areas of the course, including those such as walkways, and we have hose points at every valve, which means we can hand water anywhere if we need to.
“The installation went very smoothly and everyone involved was very professional – from Adrian Mortram, of irrigation consultants Robin Hume Associates, to the installation contractor, Ocmis, and Toro. I just let them get on with their jobs, and they did, with no fuss or mess.”
John Duncan, secretary/manager of Royal Dornoch, is also full of praise for how the installation was carried out. “There was minimal disruption over the winter months and the restoration work was superbly done. It really was invisible mending,” he said. “The new GCD system is already saving our greenkeepers a huge amount of time and effort and it makes watering the courses so efficient. The benefits are significant all round – it’s good ecologically, financially and from an agronomy perspective, too.”
Installation contractors, Ocmis, are based in Somerset. Managing director Chris Aplin commented, “We were very pleased to be chosen to install the first Toro GDC system in Europe at Royal Dornoch. It was quite a challenging project, especially as the weather was inclement at times – but we never lost a day.
“The club was very co-operative throughout and I’m pleased to say the system is working 100 per cent. I would like to thank my site manager Billy McIsaac and his team for a job well done.”
Robert Jackson, Toro Irrigation field sales manager for distributor Lely UK, commented: “We are delighted that GDC has made its debut at such a high profile golf club. The system is designed to enable Royal Dornoch to water its courses efficiently and cost effectively well into the future, and continue to maintain its golf courses to the highest quality.”
Toro Irrigation products are distributed in the UK by Lely (UK) Limited.
Toro Irrigation www.toro.com
Royal Dornoch Golf Club www.royaldornoch.com