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Imagine
Take a walk around a golf course
of the not-too-distant future.
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Photo illustrations |
Editor’s note:Tom Mead is a former superintendent who has been in the golf business for 36 years. He is a consultant who focuses on urban infill projects and the development of sustainable golf courses. His extensive experience, which comprises planning, permitting, construction, grow-in and renovations, includes stints at Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfort, Mich., and High Pointe Golf Club near Traverse City, Mich., as well as collaborations with course designers Tom Doak, Tom Fazio, Tom Weiskopf, Jay Morrish and Arthur Hills.
The following is an imaginary walk through a “sustainable” golf course, something Mead views not as a distant goal, but rather within the industry’s grasp.
Imagine for a moment a time in the future. You are the superintendent at a private club in the Midwest. As usual, you arrive at the course before sun-up. Your grounds crew is one-third its current size.
After organizing the day’s activities, you march to the first tee and begin your daily inspection, walking each hole and making observations. You’ve learned that walking the course provides a better perspective on what needs to be done than trying to see everything from a golf car going 10 miles an hour or staying in your office to review last night’s irrigation program and check e-mails.
The crew disperses for their assigned duties. They’re transported on quiet electric utility vehicles that receive supplemental power from photovoltaic cells incorporated into the roof of each vehicle. Much of the mowing and maintenance equipment is also electrically powered, making use of electricity generated from a bank of photovoltaic panels located on the maintenance building roof and a 150 kW wind turbine located on the ridge between No. 6 and No. 7.
Larger, high-horsepower equipment is powered by conventional diesel engines modified to burn recycled cooking oil collected from the dining room kitchen and nearby restaurants. The equipment and labor required to refine the oil is a significant part of the golf course operation.
No sprinklers operate as you start your walk. For the past four days, irrigation has been limited to the fifth green, the back of the sixth green and the 12th green. Overall, the grass is beginning to go dormant, with the dryer areas of the course turning various shades of purple and brown.
The forecast is for dry weather, so you begin to think about irrigating the entire course that evening. You may choose to wait one more day for the fairways and tees, but the greens definitely will need a drink to avoid deep dormancy. Your course is located on the 43rd parallel and it’s early July. The days are heating up and the nights are warm.
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Controversy fades
Five years ago your club implemented a comprehensive master plan that emphasized sustainable design and maintenance practices. Like any change, the plan generated considerable controversy initially. Your Poa annua/bentgrass fairways were converted to a blend of fine-leaf fescues. While the fine fescues have not proved perfect, the membership has been pleasantly surprised by how much fun the course has become with a fast, firm fairway surface. The improved playability has proved much more appealing compared with the consistent, day-in and day-out green color and soft surface of the original turf mixture.
Your fairway management program has changed dramatically, greatly improving the bottom line. Irrigation and fertilizer requirements have been reduced by half; the pesticide budget by 85 percent.
Mowing frequency has also been reduced by half, creating an eye-popping budget reduction for capital equipment, equipment maintenance and fuel. Maintained rough areas have been converted from the pre-existing bluegrass/rye mixture to a fescue blend, and all inputs for the roughs have been proportionally reduced. The members are all happy with the playability of the maintained rough area, and are quick to tell you so.
The Poa annua component of the old Poa/bentgrass greens was slowly eliminated by implementing an intricate maintenance program based on creating an environment that discouraged Poa and allowed the desirable bentgrasses to flourish. It was a difficult transition, but after five years the Poa population is minimal and no longer influences your management decisions. You now manage a sward of fine grasses. While the putting surfaces are not a uniform dark green color year-round, they are healthy and play firm, fast and true.
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Waste not, want not
Ninety percent of all applied fertilizer is from organic sources found locally. A majority of the annual fertility for the course comes from compost manufactured on-site. One of your main tasks is to collect enough organic waste from the course and neighboring areas to manufacture compost, which supplies 70 percent of your yearly fertility needs. Composting has become an integral part of the overall operation. You formulate both dry material and water-soluble organic tea. Your course has become a favorite neighborhood collection site for organic waste. The compost is augmented with processed chicken manure from a local poultry farm as well as waste materials containing targeted nutrients from other local businesses.
As much of the course as possible has been converted into unmaintained rough of native and naturalized species. The unmaintained rough has been allowed to evolve with minimal interference for five years. While there are a few members who seem to want to meddle with the aesthetics of the natural area, the habitat that has evolved is undeniably outstanding, with a total expenditure of $2,000 over the five-year period to eliminate woody shrubs that were beginning to encroach on No. 15 and No. 17. Your course always had a noticeable amount of wildlife in the past, but now it’s amazing. The place is alive with year-round and seasonal wildlife.
One modification to your master plan included a comprehensive redesign of the storm drainage system. Everything was re-engineered to protect water quality through the proper treatment of runoff. This has been done by creating drainage designs that mimic nature. The goal of the system shifted from trying to get all of the runoff off the property and coursing downstream into the nearest drainage way, to retaining as much water on-site as possible in order to supplement the irrigation supply. The course’s drainage system now encompasses a portion of the neighborhoods located upstream to the north and west, improving their existing drainage issues while increasing the collection of water for the irrigation supply.
A new enthusiasm
You continue your walk past the wind turbine on the sixth hole. After five years, the 120-foot tower — and the constant swish of the triple-pronged blades — is an everyday feature of the golf experience; part of the new cultural dynamic that evolved after gas crossed the $5-a-gallon mark. The wind turbine, combined with the photovoltaic panels, supplies 70 percent of the facility’s total annual electrical needs.
In the end, the membership’s initial skepticism about sustainable practices and standards steadily evolved. With ever-increasing enthusiasm, you’ve achieved a new height of environmental awareness and interest in playing the game. The course you oversee is now highly connected to nature and more interesting and fun to play than ever before. The members feel good knowing their business model assures that future generations will be able to enjoy the game.
As the superintendent and proactive steward of the property, you are at peace knowing that all your decisions are now based on what best protects the environment and preserves the region’s vital resources. You understand that you are a part of nature.
Both you and the members are excited about the results of the past five years, and everyone has come to understand that sustainability is a journey and not a destination.
Everyone is looking forward to future possibilities, with goals that include a carbon-positive facility and a 100 percent organic golf course maintenance program.