| (wsj.com) The current drought map of the U.S., maintained by the federal government, shows a small amber blemish in the Southeast, indicating midlevel drought conditions, and a much, much bigger circular bruise in the middle of the country, shrouding virtually all of Texas and Oklahoma. Its dark purple-brown colors denote not just extreme drought, but "exceptional" drought. This is no news for Texans. "It's like we've had a big 'H' [for high-pressure zone] parked over us all year, and we've had to watch the rainy weather rotate counterclockwise around Texas, like the spokes on a bicycle wheel," said Charles Joachim, the golf-course superintendent at Champions Golf Club in north Houston. Houston, despite some people's impression of the Texas climate, is a semitropical city that averages about 50 inches of rain annually. This year so far it has received only 12 inches, 5 of which fell in January. More than 15,000 trees in the city's massive Memorial Park, including many lining the golf course there, are visibly dead or dying. (It will cost an estimated $4.5 million to remove them.) At the Tour 18 course north of the city, the hole meant to mimic the 17th at TPC-Sawgrass lacks one essential detail: water in the lake that surrounds the island green. Miserly precipitation rates this year are only part of the problem facing Texas golf courses. The three-month stretch from June through August was the hottest that any state has experienced since at least 1895, when record-keeping began. Many parts of the state, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, suffered through 70 days or more of 100-degree-plus weather. "At those temperatures, a course can lose over a third of an inch of moisture every day, just in evaporation out of the turf," said Charles "Bud" White, the U.S. Golf Association's regional agronomist. The combination of drought and heat can cause clay sublayers to expand, buckling cart paths and bursting buried irrigation pipes. (The horrifying wildfires that devastated nearly four million acres in Texas and destroyed more than 2,500 homes have pretty much left golf courses alone.) Every region in Texas and Oklahoma is its own story, as is every golf course, but surveying how courses have coped with this drought, one thing stands out: Without smart water management and contingency plans, many courses will fail if the drought continues for another year or two. READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE>>> |
Where the game is in a dry season
The historic Texas drought has some superintendents scrambling to save their courses.