60 don’t end up putting it down. Colour is not a driver for the membership. We will turn on a single head here and there rather than running the irrigation overnight.” “We encouraged the club to put in fairway irrigation, but with a very strong caveat that it shouldn’t be used to water the turf regularly,” says Coore. But few courses are in Maidstone’s position, and retrofitting turf that is over a century old is not possible. Research into new turfgrass species that offer better performance in terms of water requirements, disease resistance and the like, though, offers a potential lifeline. Golf’s use of water is such an old story that readers over the age of about five could be forgiven for seeing this article and yawning. But we make no apologies for returning to such wellcovered terrain, because it is very possibly the most important factor in determining whether the game will remain successful in future years. Across the world, the pressure on water resources is getting stronger and stronger in almost every location. And golf, as a game that is widely perceived as being elitist and exclusionary, is well advised to take any opportunity to improve its PR profile, which reducing water usage certainly does. There are those within the game who feel golf already does its share: “We’re not as bad as agriculture” is a common cry from such people. But comparing golf and farming is not a strategy for success: food is a little more important to the world as a whole than golf. Better to do the right thing, and shout about it. In the US state of Utah, for example, a bill requiring both public and privately owned golf courses to publish their annual water usage recently came before the state’s legislature. The bill was opposed by the industry, and up to press has not passed, but its sponsors are still hopeful “ Today’s turfgrasses are potentially able to reduce the amount of both water and other inputs needed to keep them in prime condition” Trinity Forest in Texas selected zoysia for its playing surfaces as the turf variety handles extreme weather well and helps to keep water usage down WATER REDUCTION
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