In early May we celebrated Mr. McMulligan’s birthday and my emergence from knee replacement with what we knew would be a quick 18 at an under-the-radar local course beloved for pristine conditions. The fairways, always giving the perfect lies. The rough, always uniform. The greens, never bumpy or jumpy.
Oh my, were we ever shocked at the shape of this place – especially because a sister course in the same municipal district truly was all of the above. “That one has well water,” the all-knowing guy in our foursome said. “This one doesn’t and has to cut because of the drought.”
Well (heh heh), he was sort of right. South Suburban Golf Course relied on wells and a pond to groom the course for the high season, while Littleton Golf and Tennis looked to its usual source of spring water, its lake, and found low levels due to the dry offseason and low runoff.
“As a result, Littleton was a little slow to come out of winter because that lake wasn’t being replenished as usual,” said Clint Cook, director of golf for South Suburban Parks and Recreation.
The good news – and you’ll get more to come – was that in just a month Littleton conditions were back well under par (for golfers, that means excellent) after a few rainy days and a lot of hard work by superintendent Max Brotherton’s crew. From there, it and the district’s three other facilities – Littleton, Lone Tree and Family Sports, a busy practice complex with a fun nine that is fed by reclaimed water – aimed to curb usage by the 20 percent of the last five years’ average that many water districts around the state required of commercial customers due to Stage 1 drought levels.
In a year when golf courses around Colorado needed more water than usual because less than usual fell from the skies in the winter and spring, cutbacks are almost universal even if not mandated. With costs rising, some courses have cut usage simply to save money. Others have taken this crisis as a sign to rely on something known as “real-time evapotranspiration data” to make their watering more efficient. And others, like SSPRD, are putting irrigation improvements at the top of their to-do list.
It Could Be Worse
“It really is course-by-course,” said Mitch Savage (pictured), director of agronomy for the CGA’s CommonGround. “We don't have restrictions at CommonGround because we use recycled wastewater from Denver Water. That’s water that goes down a drain, whether it's a shower, toilet, sink, whatever, and finds its way back to a water treatment plant in Commerce City. And then Denver Water treats it to a standard that is safe enough and acceptable enough to use for agriculture and golf course irrigation purposes. It's not potable water.”
That explains why City Park isn’t restricted but sisters Wellshire, Willis Case, Overland, Kennedy and Harvard Gulch are. Denver Golf also has Evergreen, which is on Level 2 restrictions of 30 percent cutbacks for golf courses.
“Denver built the reservoir for Evergreen, and in exchange, Evergreen said you can have water from the lake at no charge for the golf course and whatever you do over there,” said Scott Rethlake, director of Denver Golf. “So we don't pay for that water, but we do follow any restrictions that are put on it.
“Willis Case and Wellshire use Denver potable water, tap water. And the other courses use what we refer to as ditch water, which could be some sort of Platte water or well water or storm water.”
Aurora’s municipal courses use reclaimed water, but Aurora Water has applied its 20 percent cuts to that source for commercial water allocations. Grand Junction courses use nonpotable water and have made voluntary reductions, using data to water precisely according to the evaporation rate of what’s come from the skies and irrigation.
Most Colorado courses also are applying wetting agents that help the grass and soil hold water longer.
“We’re very efficient with our water,” Rethlake said. “We’re so efficient that it's actually becoming a negative for us in a drought situation because when they ask you to cut 20% and you're very efficient already, you're going to feel it a lot more than if you haven't been efficient.”
“That’s a pretty big slash,” said Savage. “And that’s what you’re starting to see when you drive by some of these courses. They’re making tough decisions. Driving range landing areas are just completely browned out now. Then you go to the outer edges of the course – the rough and the landscaped areas. Tees, fairways and greens are your prime real estate, where you really don’t want to cut water.”
The Good News
We’ve had a lot of practice at this in Colorado.
“The latest survey we did a few years ago of Colorado golf courses shows that about 32% of Colorado courses use recycled wastewater, or it's also sometimes referred to as reclaimed water,” Savage said. “And that's quite a bit higher than the national average.”
Some courses were just naturally in the clear, including the gems at the Broadmoor. “We get our water from a reservoir on Cheyenne Mountain and it had good fill the previous years prior to this past winter,” said director of golf Russ Miller. “So hopefully we’ll remain OK for the remainder of the season.” And at Boulder Country Club, the Boulder Farmer’s Ditch has flowed through the season to keep the course pristine.
Even on the dry courses, Colorado golfers had to notice one fringe benefit this season: increased distance from the roll on hard fairways.
Finally, when some rain fell late in July, everyone was happy – even the golf course operators who normally would fret about rain checks and lost green fees.
“Our best hope is for some good rainstorms,” said Cook. “We love natural rainwater.”
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