With hurricane season still in full swing, potential watering restrictions are not an immediate concern for course owners and superintendents in southern parts of Florida. But they soon could be.
“Most supers are a little nervous right now because of what is pending, which could be year-round restrictions,” says Matt Taylor, head superintendent at Royal Poinciana Golf Club, a 36-hole facility located in the southwest coastal city of Naples.
For Taylor and others, the major issue is the water level of the Lake Okeechobee watershed, south Florida’s primary water source. In late August, the lake’s water level was only 9.5 feet. Unless tropical storms bring the water level up to 11 feet or more this fall, observers like Bob Randquist speculate the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) will impose water restrictions matching those of last spring, when the agency cut some courses’ water allotments by as much as 45 percent.
Many course operators are still reporting weekly water-use figures to the SFWMD, even though the district only requires reports to be submitted on a quarterly basis. That extra effort on the part of superintendents, as well as a September meeting between course operators and SFWMD officials, are signs of the growing cooperation between the south Florida golf community and the area’s water district.
“While we were under restrictions earlier this year, the district did a wonderful job of setting up a Web site where we could report our water use,” says Randquist, superintendent of Boca Rio Golf Club in Palm Beach County and board member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. “Many of us are still reporting weekly to help maintain a good relationship with the district.”
The approach appears to be working. For instance, rather than dictating how and when courses can use their water allotment during recent watering restrictions, the district has instead assigned courses an amount of water and given superintendents the freedom to determine when and how it should be used. Even with last April’s 45 percent water reduction, Randquist was able to concentrate irrigation on the key areas of his course, including greens, tees and most fairways.
“We had a few fairways that turned brownish during the height of the restrictions, but bermudagrass has tremendous drought tolerance,” he says. “Once it rained, it was fine again. The course played a little firmer and faster for a time, which our members actually liked.”
Despite recent rains, the SFWMD has maintained some restrictions. For example, Randquist is limited to watering Boca Rio’s clubhouse area twice weekly. But those are the same limits faced by homeowners, so Randquist has little complaint.
Even so, Taylor and many other superintendents are leery of another round of severe water restrictions, which may be forthcoming. As a result, he and a number of his industry colleagues have already taken precautionary measures. For instance, some course operators toyed with the idea of not overseeding this fall to save the additional water needed during establishment. Meanwhile, the use of wetting agents to improve irrigation efficiency has increased dramatically. So, too, has the practice of hand-watering to ensure water is applied only when and where it’s needed. Not surprisingly, the extra labor expenses associated with hand-watering and material costs of wetting agents have added significantly to maintenance budgets.
On a grander scale, a growing number of courses—at least 50 percent of the facilities in south Florida, according to estimates by Taylor and Randquist—are switching to effluent water for irrigation. Even though most of the area’s effluent is already being used, they agree any new courses will likely be required to use effluent, or show they’re using water in an extremely effective manner, before the state will grant future building permits.
Taylor also expects a growing number of operators to reduce irrigated turf acreage and return as many out-of-play areas as possible to a more natural state. “When I started here in 2000, we eliminated 15 acres of irrigated bermudagrasses and replaced them with native grasses that first year,” he says. “No one really knew the difference, and the water savings were tremendous.” To date, Taylor has eliminated approximately 25 acres of maintained areas at Royal Poinciana.
Interestingly, there has not been a crush of courses converting to seashore paspalum, even though the grass continues to gain popularity nationwide because of its ability to thrive with poorer-quality irrigation water. The reason: Effluent remains in relatively short supply in Florida, and paspalum requires significant amounts of water during establishment. What’s more, many players prefer the playing conditions offered by bermudagrass rather than paspalum.
“Paspalum is not a perfect grass,” Randquist says. “Like any grass, there are challenges. It’s more maintenance-intensive since it’s a very tough grass to mow, meaning mowers have to be very sharp. That requires more mechanic time to sharpen reels.”
To be fair, Florida isn’t the only state facing water supply issues. Operators in Arizona, Nevada and California have endured their fair share of restrictions in recent years and been forced to implement more stringent management practices, many of which mirror those used in Florida. Regardless, the current plight of courses in the Sunshine State underscores the growing challenge faced by operators from one end of the country to the other. Chances are, at some point, the battle to keep fairways clean and green with limited water resources will impact most owners across the United States.
Of course, that leads to the bigger question of will the water supply issue lead to more widespread and sweeping restrictions and adoption of more radical practices? Only time will tell. Until then, operators like Taylor and Randquist expect the golf industry to weather the effects of the current drought much as they have those in the past.
“Mother Nature has eventually supplied enough water again,” Randquist says. “Thank goodness droughts are cyclical.”
