EarthGolf

The American Society of Golf Course Architects has published a chart noting the expected life cycles of certain components of the golf course. (A PDF version of the chart can be downloaded here.)

• Greens - 15-30 years
• Bunker Sand - 5-7 years
• Irrigation System - 10-30 years
• Cart Paths (Asphalt/Concrete) - 5-10 years/15-30 years
• Practice Range Tees - 5-10 years
• Tees - 15-20 years
• Corrugated Metal Pipes - 15-30 years
• Bunker Drainage Pipes - 5-10 years
• Mulch - 1-3 years

What strikes me about this list is that they seem to be overly conservative in their life cycle estimates. For example, corrugated metal pipes (CMP) - the pipes that serve as the primary drainage veins of the golf course - should last much, much longer than 15-30 years. For a typical development, where this type of pipe material is subjected to traffic loading, the life expectancy of CMP is on the order of 50+ years.

I can understand the desire to have some way of long term asset maintenance planning, but I would fear the kind of numbers a golf course would come up with if it had to expect to replace its entire asphalt cart path system every 5 years.

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