Sonning Golf Club in Berkshire is making dramatic water savings after becoming the latest venue to install Toro’s Golf Decoder Controller (GDC) irrigation system.

The club commissioned independent irrigation consultant Irritech Limited to design the 18-hole, 6,366-yard course’s greens, greens surrounds, approaches, tees and fairways GDC system as well as oversee the tendering process and supervise the installation as part of a phased upgrade.

Products selected for the project include Toro 835S Series valve-in-head sprinklers, 220 Series solenoid valves with EZReg pressure regulators, SitePro Central Control system with radio remote control, weather station and PRISM software. Irritech’s aim in specifying these products was to provide an efficient and sustainable solution to the club’s irrigation requirements.

Ocmis – an irrigation contractor with a wealth of experience installing GDC both in the UK and abroad – won the tender to install Sonning’s system. Ocmis also carried out extensive remedial and upgrade work to the course’s existing irrigation infrastructure, successfully completing the installation in spite of delays when wet weather left the greens saturated.

With the club an existing Toro machinery customer, Sonning course manager Matt Smith says choosing the company’s irrigation was a natural choice. “Both myself and the club’s management had knowledge and experience of Toro equipment and irrigation, so going with GDC seemed the obvious choice,” he reveals. “We’re now a Total Solutions customer, which provides us with a good deal for both machinery and irrigation for five years as well as great aftercare for both.”

Matt says he’s “very happy” with the system, which has been fully operational for four months. “We received good training from Toro and are getting to grips with features like the PC control system and weather station. The main benefit though is that we now have minimal water wastage. We’ve just had a hot spell and I’m comfortably managing the course and using a fraction of the water we’ve used in previous hot summers. Looking at the metre readings I take on a weekly and monthly basis, I’m finding it hard to believe the savings we’re making.”