Locating Drainage Lines

Pin flags mark subsurface targets

In preparation for the regrassing project, all drainage clean-outs were located. These would be found at the high side of each green. This was done to ensure that the drainage system under the greens is performing at its full capacity.

 

When the greens were built, the drain lines were not vented to the surface. This limits water and air movement much like what happens when you turn a jug upside down. It glugs out as the entering air interrupts the flow of the exiting water. 

 



A pattern emerges

Jeff Miller and Andrew Gerstner utilized ground penetrating radar (GPR) in addition to probing to locate drainage lines. With the GPR, subsurface targets were marked with each pass made across the green. After several passes, a pattern matching the as-built below starts to become visible.

Drainage as-built drawings

 

Once found, a vented cap was installed in order to improve drainage performance and allow better access to keep drains clean in the future.