The need to conserve and protect water supplies has become a given in golf course maintenance. Superintendents are finding that proactive approaches are the best ways to uphold the new industry standards.
In recent years, nearly every golf course superintendent has come to accept that water conservation is a necessity, rather than a luxury. But now that the need to reduce water consumption has gained a universal following, where does the golf industry go from here? The short answer is that superintendents know they simply cannot let up on their successful conservation efforts to date.
“Water is one of those things that a lot of people took for granted,” says Dean Baker, Certified Golf Course Superintendent at Kinston (N.C.) Country Club. “In the early ’90s, we didn’t think about it. But now we try to use it as little as possible.”
Getting Out in Front
SUMMING IT UP
• Superintendents are being more ardent at their facilities—and in their communities—to provide leadership on water management issues.• An increase in naturalized areas on golf courses is becoming more acceptable to golfers, resulting in a decrease in maintenance costs and water usage. • To stay on top of water-related issues, superintendents are turning to online resources that range from weather reports to continuing education classes to their colleagues’ blogs. |
Superintendents are finding that a proactive approach is one of the most effective ways to stay afloat when it comes to water management. Taking the lead on water quality and consumption issues also gives golf courses the opportunity to burnish their credentials as environmental stewards.
Kinston CC first asserted its leadership in the mid-1990s, when it began to monitor the water quality of the streams on its grounds. Nutrient runoff into the Neuse River was a local concern, so the club, located in the river basin, began testing storm water runoff as it came on and went off the property.
“I wanted to be proactive and not become part of the problem,” notes Baker, who has been at Kinston since 1993.
Test results revealed that nitrogen levels were lower in the water that was leaving the course than in the water that was entering the grounds. The property tested the water quality of its streams once or twice a month until 2000, and it has continued the practice annually as part of its Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program certification.
Mike Hulteen, Certified Golf Course Superintendent at Salina (Kan.) Country Club, is also seeing payoffs from being proactive about water management.
Water Audits
One way for club and resort properties to monitor water usage is to conduct a water audit of the grounds and the buildings. Some of the key steps include: • Collecting water bills to see how much water currently is being used compared to previous years. This information also provides insight into the times of year that water is used the most, and the least.
• Walking the property or the building. Conducting a thorough walk-through of the grounds or of a facility identifies where water is being used and potentially wasted. The walk-through might require a review of plumbing diagrams as well. • Checking landscaping systems. Because these systems can be a source of wasted water, inventory the number of sprinkler heads in use, flow rates and flow controls. • Keeping building population records. Facility managers should have an idea of how many people use a building, the amount of water used per person, and how water usage fluctuates. • Checking the restrooms. Next to landscaping, the greatest amount of water used in a facility is in restrooms. • Reviewing mechanical systems. Cooling towers and boilers consume as much as 25 percent of all water used in a facility. These systems typically require that a certain amount of water should be “bled off” and replaced, so it is important to ensure that they are functioning properly. Source: Klaus Reichardt, Managing Partner, Waterless Co. LLC, Vista, Calif. |
The 18-hole facility, which was founded in 1911 and relies on well water as its primary source, plans to turn to effluent water as its main source next year.
“The permitting and approval process has been going on for two years,” Hulteen reports. “If we can secure that irrigation water service from the city, then the next 100 years will be pretty good, too. If we can lessen the load on the well field, I think that’s a benefit.”
The superintendent has worked closely with city engineers to ensure that the property is in compliance with rules and regulations. He plans to use effluent water for the entire course, except for the greens. While effluent water sometimes creates problems, such as high levels of soil salinity, Hulteen says city officials have been up front with him about test results and treatment levels.
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Over the past two years, the Red River, which runs alongside Fargo CC, has flooded the golf course five times. |
“If I need to flush, I can do it very easily with the well water,” he says. “We’ll work hand-in-hand with two different water sources.”
A severe drought in 2006 prompted the property to pursue access to effluent water—and helped it garner support for the effort. The Smoky Hill River, which splits the golf course, was dry, Hulteen recalls, and water restrictions were imposed on residents who used city water.
Spreading the Word
In addition to working with city officials to secure effluent water for Salina CC, Hulteen continued his relationship with city and county officials by serving on a long-range water usage steering committee last year.
“It was a great opportunity to educate a large number of people about our thoughts and the way we use water around here,” he explains.
Hulteen speaks to civic groups about water usage, and he has spread the word about water conservation efforts with other department heads at Salina CC as well. About five years ago, for example, the property isolated drains from its ice machines and ran them through a waterfall near the clubhouse to water the ornamental plants around the building.
The Groundwater Foundation, based in Lincoln, Neb. (www.groundwater.org), designated Salina CC as a Groundwater Guardian Green Site in 2008. This program recognizes groundwater and environmental stewardship efforts of highly managed green spaces such as golf courses, by encouraging facilities to implement, measure and document groundwater-friendly practices.
“It’s helped to increase not only the public’s, but also the membership’s, knowledge of our efforts to conserve,” Hulteen says about Salina CC’s involvement in The Groundwater Foundation program.
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Staff at Kinston CC utilized water-quality testing methods to analyze surface water flowing into and out of the golf course. |
Too Much Of a Good Thing
While many golf courses across the country have been plagued by water shortages in the past several years, Fargo (N.D.) Country Club has been immune to drought conditions. In the nearly two years that Aaron Porter, Director of Grounds and Golf Course Superintendent, has been at the property, the Red River, which runs alongside the facility, has flooded the golf course five times.
The property has spent about $175,000 in labor, reseeding and grow-in costs to clean up from the five floods. In addition, notes Porter, the entire facility, from the restaurant to the golf shop, has lost revenue because of the flooding.
Ins and Outs Of Water Conservation
Properties have found a number of ways to reduce water usage indoors and out. On the grounds, Indoors, facilities can reduce water usage by using: Source: Klaus Reichardt, Managing Partner, |
Fargo CC has taken steps to find relief, however, with the completion of a $1.3 million renovation project in June. Under the project—the first phase of a three-part renovation—the property elevated fairways on Nos. 1 and 2 by as much as six feet, built a water hazard on No. 3, and built an alternative hole adjacent to the 11th hole. The project also included construction of a new pump station and a new transfer well, to pump water from the river to a new holding pond. The property rebuilt and extended its nine-hole executive par-3 course, adding an alternate tee to one hole to make it a par 4, as well. The new hole and the extended par-3 layout have created 29 holes on the course, giving the grounds crew flexibility with its maintenance practices. “We can take any hole out [of play] at any given time, to do what we need to do,” says Porter.
Flooding aside, the superintendent says he normally waters the course sparingly. “I keep things very firm, and I water deep and infrequently,” he explains. “On hot days, we do a lot of syringing.”
Fargo CC’s membership includes golfers with a wide range of ages and skill levels, Porter notes. But the club’s greens and grounds committee members prefer firm, dry, and fast conditions.
The use of wetting agents on the greens, tees and fairways during the summer months also allows Porter to buy time between irrigation cycles. “I can inject wetting agents into the irrigation system. It’s definitely a good tool,” he says.
In consideration of the members, Porter says the second phase of the project, which will include drainage improvements and bunker and cart path renovation, won’t start until the fall of 2011.
“They’ve been through a lot with all of the flooding,” he reports. “We need to let them have their golf course.”
Changing Scenery
Increasing the natural areas on its 225-acre golf course is bringing a new look to Fargo CC as well. Porter says he has slowly been adding prairie and other varieties of grass to about 20 acres. “As it becomes acceptable, we’ll keep expanding our natural areas,” he says. “We have saved at least of day of labor and eliminated a full day’s worth of mowing.”
Hulteen also has reduced mowing costs and irrigation requirements by converting 10 to 15 acres of Salina CC’s 118-acre golf course to natural areas with wildflowers and native buffalo and prairie grasses. In addition, the property converted its tees and fairways from a combination of blue and rye grass to more drought-tolerant zoysia grass, and replaced blue and rye grass in the rough and surrounds to a turf-type fescue.
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Fargo CC embarked on a $1.3 million flood protection project that included construction of a new holding pond. |
Kinston CC also uses native grasses and buffer zones around the pond to conserve and protect its water supply.Golfers sometimes get frustrated when they can’t find their balls in the vegetation on the edge of the pond, notes Baker, but they are more understanding once they realize that the buffer zone keeps fertilizers and pesticides out of the pond. “The golf industry will have to try to educate golfers a little more that sometimes brown is good in the summer,” he reveals. “The days of having everything lush and green are changing.”
Online Resources
Porter keeps up-to-date on water management strategies by taking online courses offered by local sources as well as by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. He also goes online to read other superintendents’ blogs.
At Kinston CC, Baker relies on the Internet to check humidity and precipitation rates. He also tracks weather conditions, and their consequences, by monitoring results at agricultural test farms maintained by North Carolina State University.
Porter has a weather station to monitor humidity and weather conditions, and bases his maintenance practices on evapotranspiration rates. While he doesn’t make water management decisions strictly by those rates, Hulteen also has an on-site weather station to monitor conditions at Salina CC. “We’re in Kansas, so the weather can change very rapidly,” he notes.
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