Running Out of Water?

Over this summer we have been challenged by mother nature. Not only have the monsoon weather been underwhelming but the dry heat at our altitude has started to compromise out water storage lakes. We have have done a lot of work over the last winter and spring to make our irrigation system more efficient and save as much water as possible. Since I have been at The Rim Golf Club I have been told that the course has been too wet in the past and firm and fast is the ideal conditions. With my passion of environmental conservation I have made that my #1 priority. Save water and make the course firm and fast.

The first obstacle that we encountered was the amount of disease and insect damage. This was causing massive destruction each season and in turn using up valuable water to either grow-in damaged turf or combat root eating insects. With the creation of a Integrated Plant Management program we were able to significantly reduce our pest problems and focus on turf maintenance with less stress.

Our second obstacle was the irrigation system not only being out of adjustment along the perimeter but also the computer's database being incorrect. We had every head on the course assigned as an impact head. The only impact heads we have are portable irrigation that we have made for hot spots. Going through the database and making sure everyhead was properly assigned not only made the dry run on the computer match the actual usage for the night but also gave us the flexibility to water more accurately using more accurate Evapotranspiration Rates.

The last obstacle in our quest to save water came with the balancing of the irrigation system. My assistant Joe Trombino did a ton of work on the irrigation system and started to think about how the system was set up. We had rough heads on hillside turned up to outrageous percentages throwing to fairway heads that were nearly zeroed out. This cause wet areas along the edges of the fairways and dry in the middle. His thought process consisted of thinking "triangular". Every area is watered by three heads. When you adjust one you manipulate that area and affect the other two. His ideas basically were the opposite of what I knew were normal. He took the holes and adjusted the heads to become more balanced thus creating a consistently firm and fast condition. He was right on the mark with his thought process.

With the history of how we got to where we are today with great conditions year round we can explain our water issues this year. The monsoon season gave us little to no moisture. rolling in each afternoon but just not giving us rain.

We got through June and July with great course conditions and then we began to drain our storage. We were getting a small percentage of what we water each night from the sanitary department each week. We were watering at a great deficiet but with our work in the past with irrigation we continued to conserve water with no effect to the courses condition. This last month we were starting to use the storage held on the golf course. Our off site storage was completely gone.

In the past our driving range was the first casulty but with our conservation techniques we were able to keep our first impression intact. We may have been getting close to the red zone on water supply but I knew we were going to get the cooling of overnight temperatures and the Sanitary would once again catch up once ET rates declined.

So the question is are we going to run out of water? My answer is no. We could have a severly dry year that can give us an even bigger challenge in the future but rest asure we have done everything possible to conserve water which has given us the ability to endure a dry year and pervail. Not only has our hard work payed off but we have changed the perception of summer at The Rim Golf Club.