pelz player greens and water Harvesting
Dave PELZ started thinking about building a golf facility that was a sustainable and convenient to manage many years ago. His experience as a NASA scientist gave him the technical perspective to think about how to improve and design for efficiency. Once he found a location in Austin for his home, the property also had the footprint for his dream backyard that we see today, his thoughts quickly navigated to building a golf facility that was low maintenance and challenging and also played just like the real thing. He began designing in his mind the ultimate golf short game area and started working with turf manufacturers to accomplish his goals.
The progression of designing the facility began to take shape well and the idea of building a “real greens” experience came to fruition when he figured out how to design the sub-surface portion to react like real turf. He then perfected and patented the design under his “ShotStopper” technology. Working with his lifetime friend and patent attorney, Nick Aquilino, the process of finalizing the design elements and patent filing was completed. His efforts then turned to final designs for the Austin backyard and layout of his soon-to-be dream golf location.
His passion to design sustainable projects soon evolved into thinking about the water issues and how his backyard footprint could also improve the water needs. After some intensive testing Dave and his son Eddie figured out that the artificial turf was waterproof and they could collect almost 90% of any the water from surface runoff with proper management. The research and time designing the system has been highly rewarding.
The Pelz Player Greens facility is designed to collect and then harvest up to 90% of water from precipitation. This percentage is much higher than a standard facility using a warm, intermediate or cool season grass species and soil sub-base that will intercept a high percentage of water runoff after a rain event or irrigation.
How it works:
The greens and surrounds are professionally designed and built to move water off the play areas into a collection point and then transported below the surface to a storage well or pond. At the green surface, a minimum of 0.5% slope requirement was needed to ensure that water can move freely without assistance on the surface away from the putting area into ground swales and then subsequently into a collection point. At this point, it’s good to note that one of the many benefits of the Pelz ShotStopper technology is that the underlayment makes it possible to design and then build green contours that are both gentle and severe. There really is no limitation as to what is possible. This not only enables us to build immeasurable interest but ensures that we can design a system where water will not collect on the surface - the same cannot be said for much of the competition.
For fairway and rough areas, where the material is denser, the percentage slope at Dave Pelz backyard facility is typically 1%. or greater to help move water off the play areas and not collect on the surface. On a much larger system where there are long surface runs with minimal fall then catch basins would be installed at more frequent intervals to minimize pooling and ensure a playable surface shortly after a rain event. Another benefit of a Pelz Player Greens facility is that it’s playable only a few minutes after a rain event which can’t be said for a grassed surface which will take much longer to recover including in some cases a few days if build on heavy soils with limited percentage fall.
Water runoff after precipitation is channelled into surface swales and then captured using a catch basin system - a box with a grate - and transported underground using a solid non-permeable pipe to a storage well for reuse. The size of the pipe is dependent on the size of the catchment area above and below ground (where there is more sub-surface drainage).
Environmental impact:
Since no fertilizer and pesticide is used on any Pelz Player Greens facilities and given that artificial turf material is mostly made from sugar cane pulp it’s possible to reuse the water collected in the storage well. In the case of Dave Pelz backyard the water is reused to feed the ornamental plants and general landscape surrounding the facility, his swimming pool, ponds and water features. A small drip irrigation system has been installed to feed the plants and trees requiring minimal maintenance.
Additionally, the water collected and held above ground in the ponds and swimming pool is treated on sight with an all-natural additive newly introduced to the market. A company called Earth Science Labs has invented a new molecule, all-natural in composition, that effectively controls all algae and contaminates growth in the water. This product is also used in municipal water systems and completely safe for human consumption. As a result, Dave is able to control the quality his water quality in the entire system.
Golf facilities require large amounts of water to survive. This is not only a costly exercise but environmentally unsustainable given the cost and availability of water today and into the future. The Pelz Player Greens system not only requires no water input but is able to harvest water for reuse which in itself is revolutionary - it is the future.
