Is your golf club ready for the next drought?

BY: Mathilda Andersson

With recent reports indicating this year’s El Niño event to be the strongest in over a decade, predicting warmer temperatures and reduced rainfall in the South Western Pacific, Australian golf courses are made acutely aware that, in prolonged dry conditions, the onus is on each individual golf club to make the most out of their water supply.

Golf is said to have the greatest effect on the land of any sport. With approximately 32,000 courses world wide (1500 in Australia), it’s needless to say that a lot of water and upkeep is required to keep the acres of turf grass and vegetation in pristine condition.

In California’s golf industry, brown is the new green. The state is currently suffering an epic four-year-long drought more intense than in half a millennium. As a result, Governor Jerry Brown issued a first-of-its-kind executive order earlier this year, mandating a 25 per cent cutback in potable water use.

According to the golf industry, U.S golf courses drink up approximately 2.08 billion gallons of water per day, pushing the Governor to specifically call on golf courses to require special restrictions in order to meet the significant reduction.

The Australian golf industry is not alien to the challenges arising in the American Southwest. Recently emerging from a decade-long drought, water usage and irrigation has continuously been the centrepiece of the golf industry’s concern.

In Western Australia, a number of golf courses have recently been acclaimed by the Department of Water (DOW) for effectively managing their water consumption and for employing measures to remain sustainable in the future.

Mandurah Country Club is the most recent course that has been given Waterwise Golf Course status for efficiently managing water resources.

Grant Shortland-Jones, Mandurah Country Club’s general manager said, however, too many clubs stick their head in the sand when it comes to water management.

“We’re not aware of any other clubs that are doing what we’re doing to conserve water in this area,” he said.

“Other clubs are more business oriented and are focused on making a profit, whilst we don’t mind investing a bit of money if it means it’s better for the course and the environment in the long run.”

Five years ago the club invested approximately $500,000 to install a new system to claim recycled water instead of potable water, and created a dam on site to pump the water from.

In addition, an automatic irrigation system, which uses a central control computer to program and manage water applications on course, was installed.

The club also uses hydrozoning irrigation where different water volumes are applied according to the type of vegetation across tees, greens, fairways and roughs, during irrigation season.

“We don’t get proper rainfall here in Perth so we need to be on the forefront of water management to stay afloat,” Shortland-Jones said.

The club reached DOW’s bronze criteria late last year and follows on from Wembley Golf Course, Gosnells Golf Club and Lake Karrinyup Country Club, which have been officially recognised by DOW since the accreditation scheme began in 2012.

And being water wise is a good idea as reports from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology suggests an increase in frequency and severity of El Niño and La Nina events – rising from an average once every 20 years to once every ten years due to a warming climate.

Experiences from California suggests climate variability to require diverse approaches to adaptation and are likely to trigger investment in measures to maintain resilience of the physical course and the business side operations.

The good news is there are likely to be several opportunities for the savvy course manager.

In California, to accommodate the new water quotas, several of the state’s 900 plus golf courses have jumped at turf reduction rebate programs run by water agencies to endure the prolonged dry spell. The programs offer $2 to $3 for every square foot of turf removed.

Less radical actions taken are planting drought-resistant vegetation, installing smart water systems and tearing out turf grass in places not affecting the game.

Others are mimicking Australian course models of installing liners in their artificial lakes, turning off sprinklers in areas of less foot traffic and on-site facilities that treat wastewater from the sewers.

It seems, a larger portion of California clubs are slowly realising that the sight of great expanses of acres of green grass won’t sit well with the public when people are being asked to take shorter showers and to let their own lawns wither.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA), Golf course superintendents used 21.8 percent less water overall and just 1.44 percent of all irrigated water in the U.S. to maintain their courses in 2013, compared to 2005.

The study was conducted and analyzed by scientists at PACE Turf and the National Golf Foundation (NGF), which has been providing data analysis for the golf industry for more than 25 years.

“This study shows us that the golf industry has been addressing water issues for some time and is realizing positive results. The numbers show that golf course superintendents across the country have reduced water consumption,” said Wendy Gelernter, Ph.D., co-owner of PACE Turf.

“There is always room for improvement, however; and I think we will see even less water being used and fewer acres being irrigated in the years ahead.”

And the industry’s use of water in Australia is also becoming increasingly more efficient, and has been for some time. In fact, there has been a steady march of improving efficiency in course irrigation since the latest dry period.

In Queensland, golf courses suffered water restrictions under a state-mandated Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP) during the latest dry spell. It was a key element of the Queensland Water Commission’s (QWC) demand, requiring businesses to achieve water savings of 25 per cent, similar to reductions now implemented in California.

Wynnum Golf Club in Bayside Brisbane was one of many golf clubs in the state doing it tough during the mandatory cutbacks.

“It was really hard and because we were restricted water wise we had to cut fairways and were only allowed to irrigate greens and tees,” the club’s superintendent of 27 years, Jason Adams, said.

“The course was severely impaired by WEMP as it easily could have used 500,000 litres of water in one night; 300,000 on greens and 200,000 on tees.”

Today, Wynnum is one of a large increasing number of golf clubs that have learned from the past and are getting water smart to assure sustainable course management.

“We have since increased our water storage facility, our dam, from 2 meg to 12 meg,” he said.

“We have also put a system in place which holds water for the plants so the water won’t run straight through the soil, which results in about a 30 per cent water reduction in itself.”

Adams said he would like to get a weather station down the track that gives golf course superintendents information to better determine the water needs of their turf grass and other vegetation, but that it all comes down to costs as a basic unit costs between $10-15,000.

The Australian Golf Course Superintendents’ Association (AGCSA) in conjunction with the Australian Golf Industry Council, conducted research into how the recent drought affected Australian golf courses.

Alarmingly, the survey found that only 40 per cent of golf courses had a formal plan in place, and that the industry had been under severe strain from the dry weather, threatening the economic growth of the sport and jobs of the 23,000 people directly employed in the industry.

However, the study also reported that a portion of golf courses affected had later pursued a number of short-term initiatives to reduce water usage, and the AGCSA recommended all golf clubs to complete a water management plan to assure the industry’s long-term security.

And it is worth noting that analysis by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has shown that widespread drought does not necessarily occur with every El Niño, and the strength of an event is not directly proportional to the rainfall impacts. But in a world where climate change is on everyone’s lips, efficient water management should be on every golf course managers’.

Water will remain a priority for golf, in California and in Australia. Its supply will ebb and flow, state allocations will vary and costs are likely to rise. All of which means, water and its role at most courses will only continue to be of main concern for course managers.