The Grand-Ducal is a classic 1930s golf course located near Luxembourg Airport, in the heart of a wooded and tree-lined park. In 2024, the golf course's dilapidated and inefficient irrigation system was completely renovated, with the installation of a state-of-the-art Rain Bird centralized management system and the installation of 1,000 new sprinklers. The pumping station was replaced, and 30 km of pipe and cable were installed underground.
KEY PLAYERS
Irrigation: Rain Bird
Agronomic Consultant: Turfgrass Agronomy and Services (T.A.S) – Alejandro Reyes
System Designer / Hydraulic Engineer: Imaginier – Luis Doncel
Contractor: Terideal
Built on land contributed by Her Royal Highness Charlotte Grand Duchess of Luxembourg in 1934, the golf’s construction began in 1935 based on the plans of Major J.C. Symonds, inspired by Tom Simpson. Association Sportive Golf-Club Grand-Ducal was founded in April the following year, the Grand Duchess authorised the club to fly her colours (orange and blue), and the course was officially opened in 1935. During World War 2, the Association was dissolved during German occupation, resuming activity in October 1944 to restore 9 holes damaged during Allied Forces manoeuvres. By 1948 the 18-hole course was back in perfect condition.
Eighty years on, the club called in agronomic consultant Alejandro Reyes from Turfgrass Agronomy and Services to carry out a comprehensive audit of the course irrigation system.
Head Greenkeeper Leslie Cain explains, “The audit revealed what we knew; how poor the system design was, with just 45% coverage. The club accepted recommendations for a completely new system and hydraulic engineer Luis Doncel from Imaginieur designed and specified our new system requirements.”
Terideal were appointed as contractors to install the Rain Bird® IC System™ with CirrusPRO™ Central Control software and the 1000 new 702, 752 and 952 Series rotors, completing in April 2024.
Luis Doncel from Imaginieur commented, “As sustainable water management specialists, our objective is making water use on every golf course as efficient as possible to achieve the best playing surfaces. At Golf Club Grand Ducal, we wanted to maximise playability in the summer months when there is less rain, so designing a hard-line irrigation system meant that we could guarantee coverage would be good across the course. Rain Bird® IC System™ manages the amount of water applied by each rotor so avoiding areas becoming too wet or too dry”.
Back-to-back irrigation:
“Another important improvement was back-to-back installation on greens enabling greens and greens surrounds to be watered differently, reflecting the differing requirements of turf varieties and soil composition.”
During course renovation projects, rotors are installed on the greens in a ‘back-to-back’ configuration, typically, on the edge of the green or tee. This allows for a distinction between the amount of water applied on the green, which is made of sand (where rotors overlap), and water applied on the loamy substrate on the outside of the green, where there is little or no overlap. Back-to-back irrigation, with more rotors, offers far greater precision and control by targeting the watering of specific areas with different water requirements, preventing over-watering of surrounding areas and improving overall water efficiency.
Terideal totally replaced the pump station and installed 30 km of pipe and cable in the ground. The water is drinking water provided by the municipality.
Cain adds, “Having the Rain Bird® IC System™ with one cable suited our requirements, especially being a course with so many trees. With the old system, the frequent thunderstorms we get here would go through cables in the ground. We had far too few sprinklers and, what we had were in the wrong places. There are now 5-7 rotors on our tees where before we had just two, we’ve three lines on fairways replacing the previous single line and we installed over 1000 rotors in total, doubling our previous 500 and, the rotors are very well-designed too”.
Crédit Photo : Rain Bird - Hole n° 3
A lighter workload for the greenkeeper teams
Cain manages a ten strong greenkeeping team and outlines the benefits that the club expects the new system will deliver. He explains: “Having the new system means a lot less work, trying to make the system work – that’s the biggest benefit; not having to come in at 4am, hand-watering or watering late at night. With Rain Watch™ technology, the automatic rainfall measurement and 3mm cut-off will completely eliminate overwatering and maximise water efficiency. Because it’s been the wettest winter and spring on record, we’ve had rain almost every day and not a single warm night so we are hardly using it at the moment. However, we’re testing it out and learning its full capabilities. One of the younger members of my team is our irrigation technician. He went to BTME in the UK, attending Rain Bird’s irrigation training and he’ll be working with me, operating the new CirrusPRO software. We’re currently upgrading our poor internet connectivity which will then enable us to use CirrusPRO on mobiles”.
And he added “My advice to other clubs like us looking at system renovation is to do what we did here – start the process with an irrigation specialist and system designer who will first carry out a thorough audit of the system you have and then pinpoint exactly what you need for your course. Terideal did a really good job especially during the wet weather, completing all the system set-up on time.”
Patrick Fromowicz, Golf Director at Grand Ducal, added “I was very pleased with this project. From start to finish it went very smoothly, considering the wet winter we had. “
