How Can Golf Courses Use Less Water?
Water is a crucial element to maintaining the beauty of golf courses, and it's also one of the most valuable resources in term of sustainability. Learn how the USGA is taking steps to conserve and protect our planet's water sources. Visit the USGA Water Resource Center at: www.usga.org/water
There are several strategies and best management practices that golf courses can employ to use water as efficiently as possible and conserve precious water resources. These include:
· Selecting and establishing turfgrasses that naturally use less water and are adapted to your climate and location.
· Using recycled water, which reduces reliance on potable water for irrigation.
· Having a well-designed and properly maintained irrigation system that applies water as efficiently as possible with little waste.
· Use of water saving devices, such as moisture meters and in-ground sensors to measure and report soil moisture levels so that intelligent irrigation programing decisions can be made.
· Employing proper aeration and soil cultivation programs so that any water applied infiltrates the soil and is not lost to run-off.
· Reducing turf in out of play areas where turf is not necessary.
· Root pruning tree near critical turf areas to reduce the competition for water between trees and turf.
· Use of mulch below trees and in landscape beds.
· Addressing indoor water use with water-efficient toilets and fixtures.
· Education and training of maintenance personnel on the importance of proper water application techniques and using water as efficiently as possible.
Visit the “Case Studies” section of the Water Resource Center to see examples on how golf courses have implemented these strategies in practical ways.
Preparing For Limited Water Use - Droughts and Water Restrictions
- Developing a Drought-Emergency Plan - A step-by-step guide to help your golf facility prepare for mandatory water restrictions.
- Case Studies in Water Use Reduction from California - When faced with a restricted water supply, golf facilities must find a way to manage with less water while attempting to satisfy golfers and maintain an economically viable business. This article highlights three case studies of golf courses that have been successful using a variety of water-reduction strategies, including turf reduction, a new irrigation system, deficit irrigation, promoting firm and fast conditions, and practical solutions to comply with water use regulations.
- Making Every Drop Count - Dealing with a restricted water supply in the Southwest.
Turf Reduction Saves Water
- Turf Reduction Template - A guideline for reducing turf acreage while maintaining golf course quality.
- Less Turf + Less Water = Less Cost - Preparing a turf assessment plan can help fi nd ways to save.
- Save Water While Increasing Appeal - The Tournament Players Club at Summerlin, Las Vegas, Nevada, goes natural.
- Water Hazard - For Vegas-area superintendents, water — or a lack of it — drives virtually every decision they make in the management of their golf courses.
Turf Selection and Newer, Improved Varieties Can Save Water
- Buffalograss on the Golf Course - Two case studies at golf facilities in drought-stricken Texas highlight the value of buffalograss as a low-maintenance turf requiring less water.
- Better Grasses Make For Better Fairways - Renovating fairways with new turfgrasses elevates playing conditions and creates a more sustainable golf operation.
- Regrassing Fairways - Converting to new turfgrasses is an opportunity to improve fairways at your golf facility and enjoy the benefits for years to come.
- Fine Fescue Roughs and Fairways - Green alternative or niche grass?
Precision Irrigation to Conserve Water
- A Unique Approach - Managing Players and Maintenanc
- Identify Soil Moisture Status More Accurately Than Ever Before! - Properly utilized, moisture meters and sensors can improve water conservation and provide healthier turf for better golf.
- Gumption in Grand Junction - Renovation and new irrigation installation was a long time planning, but worth the wait!
- A Giant Leap Forward - How soil moisture meters are changing the game of putting green irrigation.
- Irrigation Performance Guarantee - The irrigation brain trust broke the mold with a performance guarantee at Paradise Valley Country Club.
- The Art of Handwatering - Gary Sayre, CGCS
- Let's Get Site SpecificAbout Golf Cou rse Irrigation - Irrigating according to localized conditions saveswater, time, and turf.
- The Five “W’s” of Precision Turf Management - Five basics everyone ought to know about this emerging technology.
- Precision Turf Management: A New Water Audit Based on Soil Moisture - The application of principles of precision agriculture to turfgrass management has led to the development of an irrigation audit based on soil moisture.
- Tips and Tools to Reduce Water Use - Golf facilities should follow these basic ideas to conserve water.
- Looking Back: Let's Save Water -
Less Water and Firmer Conditions are Better for Many Reasons – Golf is Not About the Color Green
- Irrigate for Playability and Turf Health, Not Color - Automatic irrigation systems should be utilized to keep turf alive and achieve firm playing conditions, not to produce the color green.
- Understanding and Appreciating Firmness - Our mentors taught us that fi rm is good. Now we have to spread the word.
- Water, Water Everywhere! - Overwatering of fine turf areas has concrete costs. Intangible impacts of overwatering may be more difficult to quantify, but ultimately they impact the bottom line.
- It'sAll About The Water - Less irrigation is better for golf, the turf, and the environment.
- Keep It Dry! - management is tied to a number of variables. The goal is to maintain it dry.
- For Good Golf and Good Turf - Use Less Water
Conserve Water by Not Winter Overseeding
General Water Conservation
- Maintenance Up The Middle - Great golf and water conservation are not mutually exclusive. This article explores (and suggests) several new approaches towards focusing water and resources to primary playing areas and less on golf course roughs and periphery areas.
- Water Use Efficiency Techniques from the Southwestern United States - This article offers five examples of how turf managers in the Southwest use water efficiently while continuing to provide quality playing conditions, including irrigation redesign, irrigation nozzle upgrades, improving soil properties, using soil moisture and salinity sensors, and eliminating overseeding.
- Specifics Please - The emerging fi eld of Precision Turf Management will offer turfgrass managers unprecedented accuracy of inputs applied to a golf course.
- Water Issues Facing the Turfgrass Industry - Leading turfgrass scientists meet to exchange ideas regarding issues facing turfgrass water use.
- Dollars and Sense: Making It in a Tough Economy - In these hard times, superintendents have to be extra creative.
- Thirsty Turf - A short course in water conservation.
- Water Conservation on Golf Courses - Improved Grasses that Require Less Water
Other Ideas For Using Less Water
- A Wash Pad Alternative - Equipment wash-down areas are a concern at many maintenance facilities. Options are available to improve these areas without breaking the bank.
- Milestones of the USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Program - For decades, USGA research funding has provided the means for turfgrass scientists to achieve noteworthy accomplishments.