GrayBull - How to fight fire

[Pete_Pittock]

GrayBull Bay GC (David Mckay Kidd) in the sandhills of Nebraska ( a part of the Dormie Network) had a close call with a prairie fire.  Virtually no damage to the course or infrastructure. Congratulations to director of agronomy Michael Sheely and his crew for the quick work


Edit - originally I typed in the wrong name of the course
https://golf.com/news/wildfire-rages-across-nebraska-golf-course/

[Tom_Doak]

David always blames me for fires, but I've been home in Michigan. 


Glad to hear it didn't do much damage.  Ballyneal had a similar incident a couple of years after the course opened, but it's tougher to deal with in the winter, because the water lines may be shut down to prevent freezing.

[Matt_Cohn]

Are golf courses flammable? Not counting Pete Dye’s!

[Pete_Pittock]

gorse and trees are quite flammable.

[Ronald Montesano]

Story of Bandon, way before the Dunes.

[Joe_Tucholski]

If the questions is how to fight fires, the answer may be build more golf courses as they can be great fire breaks.  The National Wildfire Coordinating Group classifies golf courses as buffer zones. 


The below paper indicates when fires are near a golf courses less than 10% of the golf course area burns and when compared to other similarly vegetated lands (other buffer zones that do well to reduce effects of fires) golf courses reduce overall fire severity by 49%.


https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/5/2/44