SandStop has been installed in multiple courses in Singapore and Malaysia.

Turf & Irrigation, a division of the Technology business unit of diversified Singapore-based industrial conglomerate Jebsen & Jessen Group, has launched SandStop, a porous rubber liner designed to ensure the long-term quality of golf bunkers.

SandStop is durable and can withstand extreme weather conditions such as heat and heavy rain. Without the need for special equipment, machinery, or any certified installation crew, the prefabricated rubber liners can be easily installed by laying and shaping them, gluing them together at the seams and covering the bunker with sand. The installation process for bunkers of 1,500 square feet can be completed within approximately one and a half hours. SandStop rubber liners can be easily removed for maintenance.

The liners are made from environmentally friendly materials, using a crumb rubber mixture from 100 percent recycled tires. SandStop liners are porous, allowing water to flow through the bunkers freely while holding the sand above in place. They act as an extension of the water drainage system.

“We are committed to constantly innovating and improving our products to deliver the best value to our customers, while upholding our health and safety standards to globally-recognized ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 standards,” said Philipp Hoffmann, regional director for Jebsen & Jessen Technology Turf & Irrigation. “When designing SandStop, we took into consideration the common challenges faced by golf course operators. Through intensive research and innovation, we enhanced the drainage function of our SandStop liners by improving water flow while preventing contamination from rocks and dirt. Extremely durable and long-lasting, SandStop reduces the costs associated with bunker maintenance.”

SandStop has been installed at several golf clubs in Singapore and Malaysia, including the historic Royal Selangor Golf Club in Malaysia.

Move will further bolster company’s presence in Florida.

MD Plant Health is pleased to welcome Erick Landis to its sales team. Since 2018, MD Plant Health has supplied Florida golf courses with agronomic products and equipment to help superintendents be successful. Adding Landis represents a sign of the company’s growth in the state.

“We’ve been eager to grow our sales team, and Erick is just the person we needed,” MD Plant Health owner Rob Dillinger said. “He has an amazing attitude, work ethic, and industry experience that align perfectly with our mission as a company.”

Landis’s background includes a variety of roles within the green industry. Growing up in northeastern Pennsylvania, Landis began working at a nearby golf course as a young teenager and then attend Penn State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in turfgrass science. He has worked as an assistant superintendent at three different golf courses in the Naples, Florida, area, in addition to gaining golf course construction experience. He gained sports field experience during his three years as the grounds director for the Sporting KC professional soccer club in Kansas City. Most recently, Landis was a sales associate at Site One Landscape Supply.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to supply golf courses in the Naples and Fort Myers communities with products I’m passionate about,” Landis said. “Having spent most of my career here, I understand what superintendents need and how I can help them be successful. I’m confident in the performance of the brands that MD Plant Health offers."

The Flo-Trol flow regulators are now available in sizes from 3/8-inch through 3-inch.

Flomatic Valves announced that the complete product line of stainless steel constructed NSF/ANSI 61 certified automatic Flo-Trol valves are now available. The most recent additions to the Flo-Trol flow regulator line includes ?-inch through 3-inch models and standard flow range offerings from .19 to 120 GPM.

The new valves “have a long-standing reputation for reliability and quality,” president Nick Farrara said. “As a global leader in the water industry, we’re proud to offer customers a wider selection of our Flo-Trol valves that fully meet the customer's specifications.”

The Flo-trol valves provide consistent, reliable performance for a variety of applications. From drinking fountain needs to groundwater heat pump needs, they are designed to offer innovative solutions for applications including low-yield water well tanks, tankless water heaters, water softeners, irrigation systems and UV filters.

With only one internal controlling mechanism — a Buna-N self-cleaning orifice — Flo-Trol flow regulators provide constant flow over a wide pressure range. Flow rates are maintained within ±15% averaging between 15 and 125 PSI (1 to 8.6 bar). Additional specifications include a max pressure of 200 PSI and max temperature of 180° Fahrenheit.

Irrigation innovator Joseph Fernandez promoted to top leadership spot.

On the 20th anniversary of its founding, AquaFuse by CMF Global, announced that Joseph Fernandez has been appointed as its new President by the board of directors in recognition of his energy, innovation and valuable services to the company. Ramon Castillo will continue to serve the company as vice president.

Since joining CMF Global in 2006 as executive vice president, Fernandez has been instrumental in the rapid growth of CMF Global, leading its expansion into new markets and introducing many innovative and unique products designed to expedite the installation of HDPE piping systems and to reduce water losses. Fernandez has been a leader in the irrigation industry for 33 years.

“I am very happy that the company has decided to elevate Joseph Fernandez as my successor as President of CMF Global, Inc.,” Castillo “It is a much-deserved promotion recognizing Joseph’s hard work, innovations, dedication and character. I know that CMF Global will be in excellent hands under his continued leadership.”

Superintendents and builders are continuing to learn more about the durability and longevity of HDPE pipe.

It hasn’t really sunk in yet. Two years ago, superintendent Bill Hamilton finally marshaled the money, and the will, to replace the obsolete, leaky irrigation system at Lake Wildwood Golf Club, an hour northeast of Sacramento, California. He doesn’t miss that crumbling, 50-year-old, asbestos main line. Not at all. It’s just that Hamilton cannot quite believe that he’ll never see it — or its replacement — ever again. It didn’t quite compute.

Hamilton opted for an all-poly AquaFuse irrigation package supplied by CMF Global, then installed by course contractor Heritage Links. All the underground components featured thermoplastic HDPE pipe, melted and fused together to form a single, monolithic HDPE irrigation system. Without joints or thrust blocks anywhere in that system, Hamilton understood there was a limit to what could go wrong on 10, 20, 40 years down the road.

“By then, I’ll be long gone,” he said. “My replacement will probably be long gone, as well.”

HDPE technology has been around for some time now. But when Hamilton understood that even the system’s gate valves would be all-poly ball valves — instead of the metal, vertical gate valves on which so many irrigation systems had depended, for decades — he confronted a very new, entirely pleasant reality.

“The poly has been used for a long time in the oil and gas business; that’s my understanding. The cast-iron valve is the last thing to leave,” Hamilton said. “If you’re asking me about tradeoffs, I couldn’t say there has been one: The poly valve is so bulletproof. I honestly wonder if you even need so many valves. With the welded pipe, it’s essentially one pipe through the whole system, where the joints are stronger than the pipe itself. They say it’ll last 40 to 50 years but we honestly don’t know how long it’ll go. The system is so good now, it’s only gonna fail if you break it yourself — if you put a backhoe through it or something. The weakest link is the sprinkler head.

“It’s hard to get my head around it sometimes. A superintendent traditionally spends so much time and effort fixing an irrigation system. We certainly did. But this deal is maintenance free. It’s made my life and my crew’s so much more enjoyable.”

According to Tim Hubbard, vice president of irrigation at Houston-based Heritage Links, the pace of change in this specific area of course construction/renovation has exceeded the lived experience of a great many superintendent and course owners — the individuals who most directly experience the inefficiencies of a leaky irrigation system. These are also the folks, Hubbard said, who must eventually pull the trigger on replacing or upgrading those systems.

Even an old, leaky system that deploys outdated technology remains familiar to these guys, Hubbard said. Superintendents understand the potential problems and become adept at fixing them. However, as Hamilton has experienced firsthand at Lake Wildwood, the all-poly irrigation life is a more efficient, carefree life.

“The all-poly ball valves, like the HDPE piping itself, are easy to install and to use,” Hubbard said. “Sometimes they aren’t so readily available, but supply chain issues have affected so many things these days. It’s my feeling that, of late, HDPE ball valves have been more readily available than the cast-iron gate valves. And the pricing of the poly ball valves is comparable to the cast-iron valves.

“There are some things supers need to get used to: The majority of the piping in a golf irrigation system is 6 to 8 inches in diameter. Maybe a handful of 10s and 12s. When initially filling a system, you can have 120 PSI on that ball, in the ball valve. So there’s a bypass system, which fills up the downstream side and equalizes the pressure, before you turn it loose. I tell people to just leave them both [the main valve and bypass] open for operation. If you have to shut down, close the main line first, then the smaller bypass valve.

“So, a superintendent has to develop a knowledge of these systems, like anything else. They also need to get their minds away from there being just a 90-degree turn to enable the most force. They need to back off a bit and not over-torque the smaller valve. It’s a new technology. There’s some education involved, but it ain’t rocket science.”

Heritage Links recently installed a similar all-poly system, piping and gate valves, for superintendent Aaron Englehart at BraeBurn Country Club in Houston. This job was noteworthy on a couple fronts: First, in Hubbard’s estimation, this was one of the first projects where the choice to use all-poly ball joints was made at no extra charge. In other words, there was no premium attached to this new technology, compared to the cast-iron option, he says.

This is a natural, inevitable pricing phenomenon once a new technology gains wider acceptance, according to Chris Menno, technical service and sales chief at CMF Global. This shift came even faster than one might expect, here in the North American golf market, because “Internationally, the U.S. is behind the curve a little bit,” Menno said. “The all-poly approach is already very prevalent in Europe, and it’s easy to see why. So much less can go wrong. The AquaFuse brand that we created under CMF, it represents a package of materials where we cherry-picked the best of the best. All the resins we’ve used to make the poly are virgin resins. We found the best pipe, valves and fittings. Once we’re 100 percent HDPE, it all comes under the AquaFuse 25-year warranty, which covers every bit of black plastic on the project.

“At that stage, it’s really down to how it’s installed. We’ve trained all the best installers, like Heritage Links. They’re as expert in these processes as they are in everything else they do.”

At BraeBurn, Hubbard and the Heritage Links team moved the state of the art forward another notch when they managed to join the all-poly irrigation system directly to the pump-station discharge pipe. Menno, for one, was impressed: “They transitioned from the interior of the pump station — an 8-inch steel pipe, a flat-faced bolted joint — and started by fusing from that point, above ground, to the rest of the network. All poly, all fused. Not a single mechanical joint restraint, glue or thrust block.”

If the all-poly irrigation era fills superintendents like Hamilton with a sense of wonder, Hubbard and Menno are not far behind. The technology addresses and solves so many issues, Hubbard said. He pointed out that all-poly piping and ball valves represent another massive step forward for any property with high-salt irrigation water, or acidic/corrosive soils. In most any situation where traditional ductile iron fittings and valves corrode and fail, the HDPE will not.

“There’s a phrase used in the assessment of irrigation systems called allowable leakage,” Menno said. “A municipal main line, even a brand new one, is expected and allowed to leak a certain amount and still pass inspection. Different formulas exist for pipes of certain sizes, but a typical gasketed PVC system of yesteryear can actually loose up to 335,000 gallons a year, on account of leaks, and they still pass an allowable leakage test! It’s amazing what we used to consider ‘tight’. Because we have eliminated bolts, gaskets and restrains with the all-poly approach, we essentially achieve zero allowable leakage. It’s just not going to happen.”

“In irrigation,” Hubbard added, “what we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re seeing accelerated aging tests that show these products may have a 100-year life at installed properties. If you’re putting it in the ground now, even an infant born today who grows up to be a golf course superintendent will never see or deal with a main line in his irrigation system. Not during his lifetime.”