Collective effort

When drought conditions hit Georgia hard enough to necessitate water restrictions four years ago, many golf course superintendents thought it was unfair that they had to follow the same rules as homeowners. Restrictions were loosened slightly so greens and tees could be maintained, but some in the golf industry weren’t comfortable with the direction the regulations were heading. They figured they had to turn the trend around.

“We said we wanted further concessions because we’re environmental stewards, and we’ll prove it,” says Mark Esoda, superintendent of Atlanta Country Club.

Since then, a task force has been gathering that proof in the form of more than 200 Georgia golf courses’ water usage reports.

“We decided we would be proactive and take initiative to develop best management practices for water conservation,” says Richard Staughton, president of the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association and superintendent and manager of Towne Lake Hills Golf Course in Woodstock, Ga. “We would not force our members with a gun to their head, but would say that if we show we’re responsible and have a plan to conserve our water, we would be looked upon favorably in a new water plan.”

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the GGCSA task force signed a memorandum of agreement in 2004. GGCSA member golf courses were asked to submit reports logging their water use rates, application methods and efforts to further conservation.

“We asked people to provide three steps as to how they might conserve water,” Staughton says. “We gave examples of what they could do, like only water the driving range once a week, or instead of mowing 85 acres at 2 inches, find five acres and don’t irrigate them at all.”

Committee members sent out templates for course superintendents or managers to complete, hoping to reach a goal of 75 percent participation among association members.  The golf course operators were given three years to return the report, which came in an addressed, stamped envelope to be returned. Given the far-away deadline, many superintendents put the project on the backburner at first, Esoda says. The responses trickled in, until six months before the deadline, when the committee was flooded with BMPs of all types.

“Some came on yellow legal paper; some came with binders and pictures,” Esoda says.

The submissions that were returned exceeded the committee’s expectations. About 91 percent of the 230 GGCSA-member courses participated. There are about 400 golf courses in the state.

The reports are still being analyzed, but the water sources and conservation methods vary from course to course, Esoda says.

The committee sent volunteers to golf courses and held classes to try to encourage participation in the program. Superintendents realize water supplies aren’t endless, but it wasn’t until early summer – when the state experienced some of its driest months on record – that it really hit home, Staughton says.

“Like a lot of things, people say they’ll try, but when it gets down to the nitty-gritty and they force restrictions onto you, people take it a little more seriously,” he says. “We started the year watering what we wanted.”

That’s not the case anymore. Drought conditions weren’t getting any better in the state in May as the last of the BMP entries were filtering in. Courses were ordered to follow a stage-two, drought-watering restriction, which puts them on the same schedule as residential water users. They can water the fairways three days a week. Tees and greens are exempt.

“It really caught people’s attention when they told us when we could water,” Staughton says.

Staughton doesn’t think the regulations are fair because golf courses don’t get their water from the same source as homeowners.

“There’s always the perception that golf courses use a lot of water,” Staughton says. “We’re using water you’re not going to use at home, per se. We use nonpotable or pond water. We’re not using drinking water.”

The golf industry is the only industry in the state that’s being regulated and the only industry that has entered signed an agreement with the Georgia EPD, Esoda says. Esoda and Staughton hope that the BMPs they’re submitting to the work with the Georgia EPD to work out water usage rules that meet each course’s unique needs yet keep the goal of conservation in mind.

“It’s been positive getting regulators to listen to us,” Esoda says. “It will help when we go to the review table for water rules.”