Golf Course Drainage:

Synonymous with Good Golf Course Design

For most, if not all golf design situations, the first thing a competent Golf Architect will consider is drainage, to the point where detailed golf hole design and drainage design occur virtually simultaneously.

Golf course drainage solutions are typically applied in several formats, some natural, some artificial. But whatever the case, you can rest assured that specific drainage solutions are always required in order for a golf course to be able to function at all.

This may range from simply allowing water to soak directly into the soil on sand based courses in temperate climates, to the incorporation of a complex underground pipe system for clay based soil in tropical climates

Highly skilled golf course designers are able to incorporate all of the required drainage into their designs such that the artificial drainage is not at all noticeable, and the natural water flows appear very natural.

Types of Drainage

A) Overall site.

This accounts for water flowing in and out of the site at its borders, as well as the general strategy for coping with the runoff from the site itself. At the outset of a golf design project it is usually wise to take a look at the overall site drainage strategy to ensure bulk water flows are properly allowed for, prior to getting down to detail.

B) Surface flow.

This is the water that flows on the ground surface prior to being carried further by other means such as a pipe or a waterway. This category can be further broken down into 2 sub categories, which we will call "collection" and "dispersal":

i) "Collection" type golf course drainage

This is where surface runoff from a designated area is directed by gravity to designated points of concentration where it is carried away, usually by pipe.

ii) "Dispersal" type golf course drainage

This is where surface runoff is spread over a wide area as it flows towards its point of egress.

The diagram below illustrates both collection and dispersal types of surface flow. It shows a plan view of an area of fairway with the direction of flow that water droplets would take, were they to be destributed according to an evenly spaced grid. The interrelationship of the red arrows shows the type of golf course drainage in action.

Where the red arrows converge indicates collection (most of the top half of the diagram) and where they remain near parallel -or diverge- indicates dispersal (most of the bottom half of the diagram).

C) Subsurface golf course drainage

This type of golf course drainage refers to the "seepage" flow of of water through soil, sand and gravel which is used on various applications in modern day Golf Course Architecture.

A combination of all of the above methods of drainage are typically incorporated to differing degrees on most modern day golf course projects. Although they are widely used with good success, they are often also -and unfortunately- widely misused.

The following links explain more about the uses and limitations of different drainage types.