Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2015 - 39

NORTHFIELD
GOLF CLUB
InsidetheMGA
The Grass Is Greener on the
Other Side
By Tom Ryan
C
onservation and sustainability:
two concepts golfers will soon
come to understand and appreciate.
At the recent USGA annual meeting
in New York, an entire morning was
spent on the topic of water usage and
conservation. Speakers talked about
the challenges many parts of the country
face with low rainfall amounts,
dwindling water reserves and the resulting
cost to irrigate golf courses.
When drought conditions occur,
golf courses are well down the list of
priorities, behind health and human
safety concerns, as well as large industries
such as mining and agriculture.
routinely focused on players. The golf
industry is looking at those problems
through a different lens, and using
what we're learning through conservation
and sustainability to address
these problems as well.
Managing the costs of turf mainfuel,
energy, labor,
tenance-water,
pesticides and fertilizer-is essential.
But to sell the impact of conservation
to golfers, they have to experience
and see the direct benefi ts to them.
We have the tools to monitor both
utilized and underutilized areas of a
course during a round. We can then
reduce or change maintenance where
Managing the costs of turf maintenance-
water, fuel, energy, labor, pesticides and
fertilizer-is essential.
Just two years ago, 12 courses in the
southwest corner of Minnesota were
told they couldn't irrigate their courses
when the rain stopped falling and the
lake levels went down. A broad coalition
of allied associations-led by the
golf course superintendents, the University
of Minnesota and the MGA-is
working with several state agencies on
best-management practices as they relate
to water management, conservation
and sustainability. The objective is
to elevate the golf industry in the eyes
of legislators and regulators as stewards
of the environment.
On another front, many in the golf
industry continue to point to cost and
pace of play as two of the major problems
with the game, with cost issues
attributed to membership dues, green
fees and equipment, and pace of play
people don't go, reallocate resources
where they do go and increase effi
ciencies. All of this is not only possible,
it's being done, with signifi cant
savings in fuel and labor by limiting
water in unused, out-of-play areas.
Ultimately these savings can be
passed on to the golfer, and pace of
play improved as the most frequently
visited areas are made more playerfriendly.
Well-managed and creative
maintenance practices can produce
excellent playing conditions, and at
the same time keep the concepts of
conservation and sustainability front
and center.
As Jim Moore, longtime USGA
agronomist, said at the USGA meeting,
" The superintendents know what to
do; they just need permission to do it. "
See you on the course.
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Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2015

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