Drought in Atlanta/Georgia

[David_Tepper]

I have been reading articles about the water shortage in the Atlanta area. Sounds like it is on the verge of becoming a dire situation.

How are the golf courses coping? Has water use for golf courses been restricted/impacted yet?

[Brock Peyer]

David, I don't officially know the status for golf courses but I have heard that most courses are watering only greens.  Chris Cupit would be the best person to answer this.  It is a dire and sad situation.  There is a complete out door watering ban with $1000 fines if you are caught watering your yard (I think that is even first time offenders).  It is quite disheartening to see pictures of Lake Lanier and Altoona, they are both around 15 feet below normal level.  People are starting to conserve water and improvise for watering the yards and flowers.  There are stories on the news about people re-using bathwater to water their yards and flowers.  I think that it is teaching us all about becoming a little "greener."  I think that it is only going to get worse.

If you like firm and fast, Atlanta is the place to be.  We could use any prayers and rain dances that you might have.

[James Bennett]

David

A number of states in Australia have been experieincing droughts and/or lack of water.  The Australian Course Supt magazine has an interesting article.  Some courses have built new dams, some have harvested stormwater and fed the local aquifer, some are using treated effluent and one course is proposing to take sewerage from the system (that runs under the course) and treat it on-site.

You will see some famous names in the lists of courses affected (Victoria, Metropolitan).

Go to http://www.agcsa.com.au/guests/atm_articles/9_2_1a.html

James B

[Gary Daughters]

David,

None of the courses I have played are unscathed, but I have to say I'm impressed that they seem to be coping.

Some are plugging burned out greens (mostly edges) to be ready for spring.  Most are watering tees and greens only, even those that draw their own water.

One of the better known clubs closed one of its courses for at least one day last week just to give it a breather.

Retention ponds are way down and little creeks and wet areas often are completely dry.

The folks at Long Shadow did not seem worried last week, but that's because they fear not brown!  (The owner told me they grew the fairways out of pure clay, which takes longer to root but ends up tougher).

We did get a little rain today and may get some tomorrow, and I believe the situation is better than it was in August when we had all those consecutive days 100+ and the East Lake fiasco.

But rain or no rain we have ignored all the warning signs and golf courses are likely to be the least of our worries before we thought it would happen.