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Green Section
Facing a dry future
By Paul Ramsdell, PNGA Media
It's a lingering concern, almost always lurking in the back of the minds of golf course superintendents throughout the Northwest.
It's almost an evil word, but one that needs to be faced -- Drought.
"We see this as one of the biggest issues we're going to be facing," said Chris Goodman, the superintendent at Meadow Park Golf Course in Tacoma, Wash. "If it's not this year because of the rain we've had that kind of salvaged the season for us, it's going to be a huge issue coming up."
Goodman has become a leading authority on the facing problem for the Western Washington Golf Course Superintendents Association. He was joined recently by Steve Kealy, the superintendent at Glendale Country Club in Bellevue, Wash., in a panel discussion on the subject.
"I think over the next 20 years, it's going to be a bigger and bigger problem each year," Goodman said.
"There's so many people moving into the area, there's so much more demand on the water systems than we've ever had before."
The superintendents want to tackle the issue on two fronts. One is doing as much as possible with as little water as possible. The second is trying to educate the golfing public to have realistic expectations.
In a way, the biggest enemy for the superintendents might be television.
"They get these unrealistic expectations," Kealy said of golfers who watch the PGA Tour every weekend on courses that have been manicured perfectly for the one event.
"People can't expect perfection because it becomes harder and harder to deliver that, and it costs more and more money," said Kealy, who admitted the British Open was his favorite because of the browned-out conditions typical of courses where the game began.
"If we get into a drought issue, and we have to cut back on water a little bit, so what if the course is a little brown," Kealy said.
For numerous courses, generous water rights prevent them from facing any mandatory water cutbacks.
"It's more a public perception issue with us versus a mandatory cutback," said Kealy, who cut back on water usage in 1992 instead of facing a public outcry during that dry summer.
"We did voluntarily cut back just because of public perception," Kealy added. "Nobody from the Department of Ecology or anything came by and say, 'Oh, by the way, you have to cut back a certain percentage."
Superintendents now are commonly using growth regulators and wetting agents to try to reduce the amount of water needed to keep a golf course in acceptable condition.
"We're trying to keep the place green and dry, that's what golfers want," Kealy said.
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