[David_Tepper]

Today's S.F. Chronicle has an interesting article on drought and golf course water use in California.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/06/MNCT12333D.DTL

[Mark_Fine]

David,
One of the driving forces behind the implementation of a Master Plan that Forrest and I did for a course in California is that we will reduce irrigated turf by over 25 acres there by reducing water consumption.

Water usage is a big issue and will only get bigger EVERYWHERE!
Mark

[Adam Kamm]

Thanks for posting this David, it's definitely an interesting point.  A very important sidebar to this topic are the environmental risks (ie liability) facing golf facilities where water is either shared (via common source or a body of water not enclosed within the club grounds) or scarce.

[Jeff_Stettner]

My father's course, Sequoyah CC in Oakland, has stopped watering the rough. The course has never played better.

[Cliff Hamm]

Our dependence on oil pales with our dependence on water.  At some point a shortage of water will make a bigger headline than that of oil.

[Joel_Stewart]

The average course in the USA uses 300,000 gallons per day.  Thats enormous and needs to be cut by 50%. 

The entire United States uses 405 billion gallons per day.  As a society we need to use less. 

[Matt_Cohn]

The average course in the USA uses 300,000 gallons per day.  Thats enormous and needs to be cut by 50%. 

The entire United States uses 405 billion gallons per day.  As a society we need to use less. 

1,300 gallons per person per day? I can imagine that when you consider food products. But damn.

[Melvyn Morrow]

In all seriousness, I believe that part of the answer regards golf course water lies between the methods that the 19th Century ‘Keeper of the Green’s used and modern common sense policies. Whilst most of our modern world is controlled by the latest in technology we still have not combated the problem regards rain water. We build storm drains, some massive systems just to dispose of the water into the sea.

I have always thought of this as ridicules – we effectively live in a giant space ship call the Earth with all we need to sustain our lives for thousands of years to come. Yet if we actually look at it in that way i.e. living in a space ship, would we allow all our excess water to drain out of our life support capsule – as we do with rain water. Admittedly when most of these systems were built we did not thing that far into the future, so it seemed logical to rid ourselves of the excess we did not need. 

I am not an Architect, I have no knowledge regards course construction or maintenance, but I do understand golf (not golfers) and I believe that we need to look to the past and also into the future at the same time. Learn how the old guys obtained and used water, how they used and encouraged worms etc to assist in maintaining reasonable fairways. Also we need to harness our excess water and recycle used water in a much bigger way than we currently do.

One thing that will come into the equation in the near future will be the location of new courses. My concerns that I have voiced on many occasions, that land needs to be fit for purpose is and will coming into it own. Perhaps in the USA with their course/housing development projects it may be easier and more cost effective for recycling, utilising and combining both domestic and commercial leisure facilities to help overcome this potential problem.

As I have said in the past I would recommend reading the articles on Ian Andrew’s Caddy Shack site published over the last 6 months or so, perhaps longer.

In a world surrounded by water we should never be short of water, but we do need to change our approach to disposing of the liquid that gives us life and which constitutes some 90% (I believe) of our bodies. A start would be to spot the water (rain and waste) running back into the sea.

In the end it always comes down to money. I just hope that potential owners and developers look at the problem with eyes wide open as the construction is only a small part of the story of a Golf Course.

[Emmy]

Next month golf course superintendents throughout Nor Cal will gather for their annual institute.

Title for the day-long seminar reads: What is More Important than Water?
Topic is timely.

 

[John Keenan]

Continuing the discussion on golf course water usage today's Contra Cost Times had an interesting article on East Bay courses that are able to use recycled water. This would seem to be an extremely intelligent way to handle water usage for golf courses and other landscape intense areas such as fields. I believe the Olympic club also uses recycled water but hopefully one of the O club members could verify that

Nice comment on golf course superintendents and how they use water.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/sports/ci_10118776?nclick_check=1

[JSPayne]

It'd also be nice if those courses that are ready for and want recycled water could get it.

The current course I'm working at was constructed with all the required piping, labelling and such to take on and use recycled water. The contingency was that when the home developer around the course finished building and selling off all his homes, they'd bring the recycled water to us. What's next? A housing slump and they can't even finish building all the homes, let alone sell them all. Currently looks like we won't be getting recycled water even though we're set-up to put it through our pipes today and would love to pay the lower water costs than the amount we're paying to use domestic right now.

And then you have the last course I worked at, which just put in a brand new upgraded system 3 years ago, with the same idea to take on recycled water. The proper pipes are in the ground and there are even signs up around the irrigation lake that say we use recycled water and to stay out of the lake. But then.......politics and lawyers got involved. The course currently uses only groundwater pulled from wells to irrigate, the only cost being the electricity used to pump it. The city wanted to offer the course $250,000 to take on the recycled water. I did the calculation and discovered that after 5-6 years we would have used up that $250,000 in paying for the recycled water alone once we got it, then we would have an additional bill after that. Also in the exchange, the city wanted to put a meter on all our well pumps......so they could monitor what we pull from the ground and potentially hand out mandated restrictions and/or cutbacks. Which isn't entirely horrible, but once the membership learned of a golf course that actually MADE MONEY off their wells by selling off some of their groundwater rights to local farmers, they began to understand just how much of a financial and political player water is becoming and weren't about to let the goverment take over those water rights.

You'd think it'd be easy to try and do the right thing, right? Gotta love politics and goverment........

It should be mentioned that at both courses, we are currently doing our part to save water. I've recently shut off over 100 sprinklers that used to water daily, saving around 10% of our total previous usage, and my boss (the super) at the other course currently only waters every other day after converting most of the course to low-water-use bermudagrass from water-hungry Poa/Rye that existed before.

[John Keenan]

I have noticed here in Northern California that courses using public water are insuring that the greens are well maintained the fairways are still green (ok somewhat green) but the rough is golden.  I cannot really blame them. Tough situation and one that does not look to be getting better over the long haul.

The idea of grasses that require less water is a great approach couple with recycled water (when and where you can get it) coupled with golfers learning to accept less than Augusta like green grass. I would suspect that the NCGA may need to help on educationg golfer to the situation and what they should expect. f

[David Stamm]

I can here Allan Ferguson now.....

[Bob_Huntley]

A problem with the recycled water in the Pebble Beach corridor of golf courses was it's high sodium content. I understand that now, some years after its introduction, the problem has ben addressed.

Bob

[Joe Perches]

A problem with the recycled water in the Pebble Beach corridor of golf courses was it's high sodium content. I understand that now, some years after its introduction, the problem has been addressed.

Do the courses still periodically use fresh water to "flush"?
Has the reverse osmosis/demineralization project come online yet?

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1006821/golf_links_may_bid_goodbye_to_cal_am/index.html

http://montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2008/2008-Feb-07/environmentally-friendlier-golf-courses--are-gaining-recognition/1/@@index

http://www.ncga.org/2006/04/03/repair-recycle-reward/

[John Keenan]

I had heard that high sodium had the potential to "burn" the greens. Isn't that something that could be monitored at the recycling facility?

I am far from an authority on the quality of recycled water but that sure sounds like something that once noted could be addressed

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