| CHANCES ARE YOU DON’T think much about water, and
why should you? You can turn on your tap at home and run
it for as long as you like with very little economic or environmental
consequence. Most places in the world aren’t so
lucky, and one day soon, perhaps, neither will we be. Increasing
demand and widespread drought (last year was the hottest on
record in the U.S.) have strained our finite water supply as
never before. No surprise, golf is feeling the brunt of it.
It has become such a burning issue that the U.S. Golf
Association felt compelled to convene a two-day, 20-speaker
conference in November, “Golf ’s Use of Water: Solutions for
a More Sustainable Game.”
“We know that water issues will not diminish in the years
to come,” says Dr. Kimberly Erusha, head of the USGA’s Green
Section. “And even though the golf industry has long recognized
that we’ve got a responsibility to carefully manage this
natural resource, we believe that finding solutions is going to
require collaboration between private and public partnerships.
The water summit seemed like the right way to start.”
Golf courses’ use of water has become so critical that it’s
surpassed growing the game as the sport’s top priority. “There
will be more and more demands and the cost will go higher and
higher,” says Greg Lyman, the Environmental Programs
Director of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of
America. “There are some places in golf where the water costs
are just staggering—the Las Vegas valley, for instance. It’s not
uncommon to have annual water budgets of a million dollars.”
As the spigot slows to a trickle,
not surprisingly there’s been a
torrent of regulations affecting
recreational use.
“It’s a competitive
resource now,” says Peter
McDonough, the superintendent
at The Keswick Club in Charlottesville,
Virginia. “Before people
assumed it would always be
plentiful. You didn’t think about
it because there were no
alarm
bells coming from local, state, or
federal governments.”
Although golf might seem like
the ultimate water hog because of
all its green turf, that’s not really
the case.
According to the USGA,
total golf course
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irrigation in the
U.S. accounts for just one half of
one percent of water use and it
gets better every year thanks to
more knowledgeable superintendents,
more natural areas, and
more sophisticated irrigation systems
with in-ground water sensors.
But because of its perceived
elitism and vast land needs, golf is an easy target. Communities
need to decide the value golf adds in the way of environmental,
social, and economic aspects. Chances are it stacks up pretty
well, even just from an agricultural point of view.
“Golf courses are producing a ‘high value agricultural crop’
as the economic benefits per acre are higher than for most
crops,” a recent University of California, Berkeley, study concluded.
“As governments establish principles to allocate water
and land resources among various activities, golf courses
should be allowed to compete.”
A big part of the solution lies with golfers themselves becoming
a little more water wise, for example accepting less
than Augusta National-like conditioning. If water is indeed
the new oil, then brown will have to become the new green.
“For decades golfers have based their expectations off the pro
game on TV,” says architect Jay Blasi, whose design credits include
the very eco-friendly Chambers Bay near Tacoma, Washington.
“While this doesn’t make much sense, it is the case, so
we are seeing 7,000-plus-yard courses with over-the-top landscaping,
super bright green fairways, and blinding white-sand
bunkers. In most instances, these traits are In most instances, these traits are not sustainable.”
So maybe it’s time we all thought a little more about water use, whether we’re turning on the tap or teeing up a ball. “There’s no doubt that courses are going to look different,” says Erusha. “We’re going to see varying shades of green and that’s okay. We can still provide a high-quality playing surface that’s a lot of fun. Golfers will like the extra roll they’ll get.”
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