SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA | USGA CEO Mike Whan is not a man to mince words. So, the ones he uttered to Global Golf Post late last summer speak to the seriousness of the situation surrounding the drought that has been wreaking havoc in much of the United States west of the Mississippi River and the need for golfers in general – and his organization in particular – to act.
“The watering issue is going to be the biggest kidney stone golf has to pass in the next 20 years,” he said.
A couple of months before he made that statement, Whan had outlined a plan at the 122nd U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, designed to address that very critical issue. Dubbed “15/30/45,” it calls for the USGA to commit over the next 15 years $30 million to reduce the amount of water a golf course uses by 45 percent.
At the time of the announcement, Whan pointed out the association already was spending close to $2 million a year on agronomic and turfgrass research through its Green Section, which was founded in the fall of 1920. A good portion of that money deals with matters of water conservation, such as the development of more drought-tolerant grasses.
With this new initiative, he is driving a stake even deeper into the ground in an effort to provide more solutions for golf courses looking to reduce their own use of water – and doing so in the most efficient and economic ways possible.
As part of 15/30/45, the USGA has identified what officials say are nine key action areas. They include the reduction of irrigated acreage; the use of drip irrigation, largely for more efficient application of water to difficult-to-access locations such as individual teeing areas; and the use of more drought-tolerant turfgrasses while also cutting back on overseeding.
Also in that lineup are increased use of non-potable water for irrigation and the employment of “precision irrigation strategies,” which have been made possible by advances in digital technologies. Better maintenance of irrigation systems also can save water. And certain chemicals have been found to be effective in that effort as well. The same holds true for strategies to lower water losses from evaporation or seepage from lakes, ponds and manmade storage facilities.
Then, there is the matter of turf-quality expectations and getting golfers to appreciate, for example, that browning out the rough or stopping the maintenance of turf that never actually came into play are good things.
During the next three years, the USGA plans to initiate 15/30/45-related pilot programs and demonstrations in the Southwest, where water issues are most acute, in an effort to educate course owners and their superintendents and help develop a playbook to guide them down the road. In addition, the association is creating a series of guidelines and best practices to assist those folks in making decisions about the turf they are tending.
In talking about 15/30/45 at last year’s U.S. Open, Whan asked rhetorically: “What’s golf going to look like west of the Mississippi long-term?”
Clearly, the USGA hopes it appears better than it does in some drought-ravaged parts of the country today. Which is why it has put together this program.
“(It’s) a goal we need to take on,” he said. “And we need to be bold enough to hang it on the wall and challenge ourselves.”