How do golf courses in arid regions cope with the lack of rainfall?

Several golf courses in the UK suffered from the exceptionally dry spring that broke so many records for the lack of rainfall.

While short-term problems can be, and have been, dealt with, possibly the biggest threat to British golf is that the dry summer of 2006 and this year’s waterless spring are parts of longer term trends. So what do golf clubs that are either used to this climate, or have experience from government-driven water restrictions, do with a lack of available water?

Royal Adelaide Golf Club

The R&A, via a new web site aimed at sustainable development, found at www.randa.org/en/TheGolfCourse.aspx, is showcasing Royal Adelaide GC, which is located in South Australia, one of the driest areas on the plant, as an exemplar of good water management practice. More than 200 megalitres of water is required each year to maintain its course and, until recently, most of this was taken from an aquifer 200 metres below the surface for the four to five summer months that Adelaide experiences.

However, the South Australian authorities are restricting access to this water, which will also mean that its cost will rise. “Furthermore,” states The R&A, “the quality of the aquifer water, as taken from a borehole, for irrigating turf, is questionable as it contains salt at 950 parts per million. This salt accumulates in the rootzone of the greens over the months of irrigation, resulting in stress to the bentgrass and some grass loss by the end of the summer. Therefore, along with two other clubs nearby, The Grange and Glenelg, Royal Adelaide found it recently needed to secure an adequate supply of quality water.”

The solution to this problem was found in the fact that during winter, Adelaide is prone to heavy storms, of which much of the stormwater is discharged into the Gulf St Vincent. The stormwater is a problem for the area as it causes coastal damage during the discharge and. although unclean, there is enough of it to meet the clubs’ irrigation requirements.

At a cost of over £5 million, shared between the three golf clubs and local and central government, a major engineering project installing the pipework to get the water to the courses, and the construction of a series of reed beds (to clean the water) within the boundary of each course, was undertaken and completed in 2009.

“The stormwater now passes through the reed beds, which filter out contaminants resulting in water that is not only clean enough for irrigation, but of such a quality that it can be injected into the aquifer. The cleaned stormwater contains salt at approximately 100 parts per million, which is lower than Adelaide’s potable water supply,” states The R&A. “The club now has access to a source of waste water which is clean for use on the course. It has reduced its usage of aquifer water to zero. The future supply is secure and the investment will be recovered over time, when compared to the cost of buying water from the local municipality. The reed beds provide wetland habitat, enhancing biodiversity and greatly improving the appearance of an area of the course that grew only scrubby vegetation in salty soil. Royal Adelaide Golf Club should be able to put at least as much water back into the wetlands over winter as it takes out over summer, becoming a net zero user of aquifer water.”

The project saves 1,000 megalitres of water a year by doing this.

Smørum Golf Centre

Smørum Golf Centre, also promoted by The R&A, in Denmark was concerned about the gradual ingress of annual meadow grass (poa annua) on greens, which is prone to disease and is not as drought tolerant as the fine fescue it was replacing, which is a particular issue as golf courses in Denmark are restricted to 3,500 m3 per nine holes of water for irrigation each year.

In 1996, Smørum adopted a management strategy to give the fescue the competitive edge over the poa annua. This included weaning the greens off nitrogen – a process that saw application levels fall from 249 kg/ha in 1997 to 31 kg/ha in 2001; applying minimal and targeted watering; cutting no closer than 5mm during the growing season and oversowing with fescue at 20 g/m2 each spring and late summer to maintain sward density.

“The restoration of fescue-dominated swards was completed as a result of this tailored management regime,” states The R&A. “Inputs to the greens, and hence costs, are low. The water and fungicide requirements fall well within government restrictions. Indeed, only one application of fungicide, to manage dollar spot, has been made to the greens over the last 10 years.

“Quality putting surfaces are provided whenever the course is open for play. After a hard winter, golfers were back on the greens by the middle of this February, enjoying Stimpmeter readings of 10 to 12 feet! Smørum is an excellent example of the low-input management approach that is needed to successfully maintain a fine fescue sward.”