Historically, water has been Colorado's lifeblood.
Those first settlers built their dreams on river banks.
The mountain men settled near creeks and streams.
The cities grew up along the Platte, Colorado and Arkansas rivers.
It's no different today - especially for golf courses. And even more so considering the drought situation the state has faced the past few years.
"Much of the golf industry in the state was devastated in the last couple of years," said Ed Mate, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association. "But I think we learned our lessons pretty well."
When it comes to water usage, there are primarily two sides. There are some folks who believe you shouldn't pour even a drop of water on recreation facilities such as athletic fields and golf courses.
And there are those who believe recreational resources are musts for the general well-being of the population.
The drought drew those battle lines deeper and longer than they had been drawn in recent years - especially for those courses that fell under the jurisdiction of the Denver Water Board, which includes every municipal course in the metro area.
"I understand that it's hard for people who don't play golf to drive past a course and see the sprinklers running while they're under water restrictions for their lawns," said Mate, who also serves as caretaker of Mira Vista Golf Course, which the CGA took over when Lowry Air Force Base closed. "But what most people don't understand is that the water we're using on the golf courses isn't drinking water. But that doesn't stop them from calling the powers in charge and lodging complaints about 'those golf people wasting water.' "
But not all water is created equal.
Under fire from both the public and politicians, the major golf organizations in the state commissioned an economic and environmental impact study on the ramifications of what would happen if golf courses died from lack of water and exactly how much water those same courses used.
"The results (of the study) surprised even us," Mate said. "The total amount of water used by golf facilities in the state came to just one-half of 1 percent of the total water usage.
"And 90 percent of that water was non-potable - either reclaimed, waste or well. There wasn't a lot of drinking water being put on golf courses, but the public not in the know didn't know, and that caused most of the problems."
Under fire from the public, water districts around the state started turning the thumbscrew on golf courses - even trying to micro-manage how to use the water they did release.
"We got a mandate from the (Denver Water Board) that we could water our tees and greens at Mira Vista," said Mate, who noted the course at First and Havana almost was decimated last year. "But that wasn't always what we needed to do to keep our golf course alive and thriving.
"Our fairways burned up, and that had a heavy impact on our play. People who don't understand the game really don't need to tell golf course superintendents how to manage their facilities. Most - make that all - supers know a lot more about water usage than the average homeowner. We finally got the point across to the board that we could live within our water budget, but let us use that water in the way that we saw fit."
The drought has been survived for now - and some lessons were learned on both sides.
"If anything good came out of the drought, it was that we established better communication between the golf organizations and the water boards," Mate said. "If nothing else, it got us talking to each other."
Mother Nature even chipped in this year with some much-needed rainfall, and according to those who do the weather guessing, a good winter snow pack could get things back to normal.
"It's been a crazy time," said Dennis Lyon, Aurora's director of golf and a past CGA president. "In 2003, we were down almost $1 million in revenue because of the conditions of the golf courses. Play has even stayed flat this year, but I think a lot of that has to do with some construction and maintenance that was put off for the past couple of years because of the water shortage is having an impact, too."
And there also exists the other side of the double-edged water sword.
"Three of the four weeks in June it rained," Lyon said with a laugh, "and July wasn't a lot better. That cut into our play, too."
Mate knows.
"We went three years without rain, and now it rains nearly every weekend," he said. "And nobody wants to play in the rain."
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
