Water-logged mind

I’m a water junkie, especially this time of year.

A pool sits a flop shot from my townhouse and Lake Erie defines the northern stretch of our region. I spend little time at either place. Perhaps I should get a life away from the golf course.

When spring shifts into summer, we produce the issue resting in your hands. The goal each July is to provide content exploring all sides of the industry’s water conundrum. Nothing about managing the resource on golf courses will become easier, something I’m reminded whenever I visit sites, speak with superintendents, watch golf on TV and read about the resource (while never sitting by the pool or on the beach).

Consider the story by our editorial intern Patrick Williams beginning on page 28: “Taking it all in.” Using effluent water seems like a brilliant idea for courses in dry regions – until realizing the quality of water they are receiving can, well, suck. Simple gets complicated, and superintendents are scrambling to find solutions to a problem with major financial, political and environmental consequences. Disclaimer: We warned you in our June cover story “Pace of change” the next decade will bring massive challenges for superintendents. Water ranks high on the list.

I created a list of water-related items observed, heard or read during the past six weeks. Because it’s July, let’s make the list an external one.

Severe flooding forced the PGA Tour to cancel The Greenbrier Classic scheduled for July 7-10. TPC Louisiana superintendent Brandon Reese has started a fundraising effort to help members of The Greenbrier’s agronomic team affected by the disaster. The goal is to raise $8,000. Donations can be made by entering www.gofundme.com/2b5ivbo into your web browser. Having visited The Greenbrier twice this year, it’s harrowing to ponder the plight facing director of golf course maintenance Kelly Shumate and his team. The staff is tight-knit, prideful, determined and unselfish. I’m confident we will hear more heroic stories originating from Greenbrier County, W.Va., as the summer progresses.

The team of Oakmont staffers and volunteers assembled for the U.S. Open couldn’t have handled a wicked 24-hour stretch better. Over 3 inches of rain interrupted the tournament’s first day. The intensity level inside the maintenance facility between storms surpassed anything I witnessed during 10 years of covering professional, college and high school sports. That personal period includes a decade of covering college and high school wrestlers, the most intense dudes on campus. Storms temporarily altered Oakmont, yet failed to wreck a masterpiece. Superintendent John Zimmers cemented himself as the Dan Gable of modern agronomy with his performance last month. The biggest lesson the average superintendent can learn from Zimmers and his team? Don’t sulk when the radar looks nasty.

Seth M. Siegel’s “Let There Be Water” and Peter Annin’s “The Great Lakes Water Wars” are solid summer reads. Siegel’s book describes the role proactive water management and investment played in making Israel a pillar of stability in an unstable region. Americans operating water-reliant businesses, including golf courses, can learn from Israel’s ways. Annin’s book focuses on a region with plentiful water. It will also scare anybody who believes they are working in a place immune to water supply problems.

The first thing I noticed when walking Muirfield Village Golf Club three days before the start of the Memorial Tournament were crew members pulling “runners” along water features. Water features are a prominent part of Muirfield Village, and they are enhanced by a crew driven by details. Few things are a bigger turnoff to casual golfers than untidy streams, ponds and lakes.

The wise men who manage turf at Pinehurst are experiencing another transformation that will decrease the resort’s water usage. The greens on the No. 5 course are being converted from bentgrass to Champion Bermudagrass. Greens on five of Pinehurst’s nine courses, including the famed No. 2 course, will now feature Champion Bermudagrass. Bentgrass covered every Pinehurst green less than a decade ago. “There is a different mentality now as far as keeping the greens alive vs. making the greens better and being better suited for our environment and our play demands,” says John Jeffreys, superintendent of the No. 2 course. “We get more play June, July, August now than we probably did 10, 15 years ago. We are able to focus on better conditioning when we are at our highest levels of golf and not necessarily putting them on life support.”

As I complete this note, parts of 43 states are “abnormally dry,” according to the U.S Drought Monitor. Our sliver of the world falls into this category. It doesn’t make me want to visit the pool or lake. But I’m enjoying the extra 25 yards of roll on my drives.