This content was first published in Golf Journal, a quarterly print and monthly digital publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receive Golf Journal and to learn how you can help make golf more open for all, become a USGA Member today.
Golf and the environment enjoy a symbiotic relationship, and the golf industry has a long track record of environmental sustainability. Look no further than the USGA Green Section, which was founded in 1920 to bring expertise to courses that were struggling with turf health.
Today, there is increased pressure from both inside and outside the game to ramp up sustainability efforts, particularly in the face of a water crisis that threatens the game’s viability in some parts of the U.S.
In the southern tier of the country, one spotlighted tactic is overseeding, the wintertime practice of seeding ryegrass over warm-weather bermudagrass that allows courses to provide green, actively-growing turf year-round.
The presence of green grass in winter can appear as if courses are flauntingly overusing resources. Yet USGA agronomist Brian Whitlark disputes that notion.
“Course superintendents have no motivation to overwater,” said Whitlark. “In reality, it’s the opposite. Overwatered courses produce soft ground that is not fun to play on, and worse, encourages unnecessary turf growth that is costly and disruptive. Every golf course in the country is motivated to use water efficiently and sparingly.”
Why Courses Overseed
Golf, like many industries, requires water. Similar to other agro-ecology systems managed for perennial crops, the golf industry gets something in exchange for its efficient use of resources.
From the perspective of a course owner, especially in the American Southwest, it’s often a no-brainer to invest in overseeding. People travel from far away to play courses in the warm winter months and bring with them certain expectations about how the courses will look. In Arizona, the golf business generates approximately $6 billion a year, and each of its golf courses helps generate that revenue. If these courses were to stop overseeding while others in different regions keep up the practice, the economic impact could be significant.
Overseeding does use more water than letting the summer bermudagrass go dormant. It also requires a transition period in both shoulder seasons, as the course often has to shut down or limit play to adequately establish and subsequently remove the ryegrass overseed. Of course, not everyone agrees that overseeding is the answer to the balance between resource efficiency and a viable business. Some believe that playability is improved when courses skip overseeding.
“Playability is a tricky thing to define, as it means something different to every golfer,” said Cole Thompson, the USGA’s director of Turfgrass and Environmental Research. “If you define it in terms of interruptions to play over the course of the year without taking other factors into account, then courses that don’t overseed probably do provide better playability.”
Regardless of the reasons a course might overseed, there’s no denying that the practice of overseeding uses additional water.
Options and Mandates
The golf industry takes water efficiency very seriously. Thompson notes that it’s also important to keep some perspective about how much water golf courses really use.
“Across every course in the United States, our best projection is that we use about 1.7 million acre-feet of water annually. This is about one and a half days of total water use for the country. That’s not insignificant, we know, but it’s also not nearly as much as many people might think when they look at a beautiful green course.”
Recent research by the USGA has found that the overseed model needs 6 to 6.5 acre-feet of water a year to be effective (one acre-foot of water is equivalent to about 326,000 gallons, or the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land one foot deep). While state regulations differ regarding the amount of irrigated acreage
allowed, this information can give courses considering alternatives to overseeding an immediate answer.
For example, the Southern Nevada Water Authority recently changed the water allotment for golf courses from 6.3 acre-feet of water per acre a year to 4 acre-feet per acre, making complete overseeding of courses virtually impossible.
The water bill is often the largest expense for small, individually owned courses. Some courses pay more than $1 million a year for water, and even smaller courses can pay $300,000-$600,000 a year. If they can reduce that cost while keeping players satisfied, then implementing alternative solutions might just be worth it.
“With a water bill of over a million dollars, wasting water is literally flushing thousands of dollars down the drain,” said Matteo Serena, the USGA’s senior manager of Irrigation Research and Services. “In actuality, overwatering hardly ever happens because it impacts playing conditions. No one likes to play on soggy surfaces. Courses want to make the best use of the water they are allotted, not just from a cost perspective but also to give their players the best experience.”
Alternatives to Overseeding
Overseeding is just one strategy used to balance water use with customer satisfaction. Although it’s not as simple as decreeing a full stop to overseeding, research and development continues to advance the industry (see sidebar, next page) in ways that will allow the game to adapt to a future where resources are increasingly limited.
While the USGA works on implementing those cutting-edge advancements, there are already alternatives in use that give players the experience they expect while reducing water use.
• Embrace Dormant Turf: With this tactic, courses eliminate overseeding altogether. It can be a risky decision if customers aren’t on board with this choice. If one course chooses this route, and their neighbor down the street chooses to overseed, research shows that many golfers will gravitate toward the greener course. The golfer will notice a difference, even if it’s as simple as the loss in definition between rough and fairway.
Looking to the future, the USGA works closely with a handful of universities to research improved strains of bermudagrass that will retain green color and will produce growth and recovery during the winter season. Such a grass would compete with or surpass the playability of an overseeded course.
In the meantime, Serena believes that courses will find the balance between costs, resource use and golfer experience. “With costs increasing, courses are already reducing the amount of overseeding. But right now, simply eliminating overseeding isn’t practical for every course. Dormant bermudagrass has no recuperative capacity. You can still play on it for the winter season, but depending on the traffic level it can sustain a lot of damage.”
• Implement Partial Overseed: In many parts of the Southwest, courses are reducing the amount of overseeded acreage, allowing the roughs to go dormant with the warm-season bermudagrass and only partially overseeding other areas like fairways and greens.
This method can also help meet increasingly strict regulations. In Arizona, for example, the current regulation only allows for five acres of irrigated turf per hole. Serena advises courses to consider implementing this strategy in the near term. “If drought conditions persist, overseeding is simply too demanding on our resources. In the future, we might move to eliminate overseeding in place of alternative solutions.”
• Irrigate with Reclaimed Water: A number of courses around the country are already irrigating with reclaimed water, and this practice is increasingly becoming part of the long-term solution to reducing use of potable water.
The challenge is often in accessing it. The pipeline needed to deliver reclaimed water is large and expensive, and courses have to foot the bill if one isn’t already in place. According to Serena, in some places the price tag can be as much as $2.5 million a mile, making this cost-prohibitive for most courses. Even so, many courses are investing in this type of water, as it will likely be a stable and available source in the future.
• Apply Dyes and Pigments: A spray of dye can turn dormant bermudagrass green, allowing for golfers’ desired aesthetic. This solution is best used on courses that stay open in winter but don’t see a lot of traffic.
While a workable solution to draw in golfers and improve a course’s look, this alternative comes with its own challenges. The dye likely won’t last the entire season, and dyed and dormant bermudagrass will wither with traffic as the season progresses.
The Greenest Way Forward
The golf industry is populated with dedicated, hard-working people who, according to Serena, “don’t want to be seen as not caring about the environment.” This sentiment includes golfers.
As we move into the reality of water-allocation limits, three factors are driving increased
efficiency. One, increasing costs motivate courses to reduce expenses. Two, providing a good golf experience means firm, lightly watered playing surfaces. And finally, courses rely on the health of the land under their stewardship.
Research has led to progress at every stage, from course design to maintenance to management; the next step is to implement the strategies on a larger scale.
Innovative strategies, especially with water use, will be a key to the game’s long-term health, as well as one of its biggest challenges.
