Eric Hill

Assistant Superintendent, Cherry Hills Country Club

Saving Millions of Gallons of Water Every Year

Before incorporating Agri-Inject pumps into the course irrigation system, Eric’s team spent days with a 300-gallon sprayer each time they needed to treat the entire course. In addition to the huge amount of labor that requires, it was also detrimental to the overall course experience for members. It required treating the courses early in the morning, often leaving the course wet — or worse, having to restrict tee times to accommodate the treatment. 

There’s also a health hazard aspect to consider. While there will be chemical exposure in any chemigation process, before Agri-Inject there was significantly more exposure.

Less Water, Less Labor and Less Exposure

“We use hydrochloric acid, n-pHuric acid, and chlorine. When we used our sprayer, it would take 25 tanks to do that, so an employee is handling that product 35 different times. With the [Agri-Inject] injection system, all we have to do is take our tote to the pump house, and the only handling we do is hooking up the hoses to the actual tote. We don’t have to breathe it in; it really takes the products out of our hands, which definitely increases the safety” 

Cherry HIlls Country Club now uses three Agri-Inject pumps; two 19-gallon an hour pumps and one custom pulse pump built specifically for the golf course. Before the pumps were installed, it took three days to treat the entire course top to bottom — a hugely labor-intensive process.

“Now we can do it over the course of an evening, or we can do it in small amounts for three or four nights if we want. If we need to add something to that, we can adjust what we’re putting out. We never have to switch anything, and it really saves us a huge amount on labor. We can treat around the weather when it’s most convenient, or treat every other month as needed, and we supplement the injection with whatever the turf needs to stay healthy.”

In Denver, there isn’t very much rain. As a result, Eric has to use an n-pHuric product, which somewhat mimics the rain, to ensure the course gets the treatment it needs. Since their Agri-Inject system can accommodate this product, it allows them to water less frequently.

“I can say that since we’ve been using Agri-Inject, we probably save over the course of a season anywhere from 10 to 15 million gallons of water for the environment, which is massive for us.”