We have had our new irrigation system for a entire season now. It was a rough start at the beginning of the season and it definitely was not saving us time. Once we got the heads that needed cleaned out it became a very efficient tool.
We use to spend a lot of time fixing broken heads and pipes around the course. The old pumps were rebuilt many times a year usually around 3 am. But with our new system we have started to become much more efficient.
Once the system was up and running the time we spent on the irrigation system dropped considerably. We still had to do routine maintenance and fix heads. The time it took to do those jobs compared to the old system is not even comparable.
Most courses have a dedicated irrigation technician that only does hand watering and irrigation repair. We all do that work here during the irrigation season. We try and make the job as efficient as possible but it is still time consuming and necessary.