Seven Surprising Solutions for Golf’s Water Usage

Sketch via John Todd Ecological Design — *Sketch via* John Todd Ecological Design

With Memorial Day approaching and summer quickly upon us, water usage will be a growing concern, so let’s look at some possible water solutions for golf.

Consider this a teaser for future content in which we’ll take a closer look at the feasibility, costs, and benefits of the following solutions, and share the stories of courses already undertaking similar efforts.

Water consumption might not be a universal problem for golf (not in regions with abundant water supplies, for example), but let’s face it, the typical golf course in the Southwest uses roughly 200 olympic-sized swimming pools for irrigation (according to the GCSAA’s latest research). Most of that water comes from the Colorado River.

On that note, golf faces both political and practical challenges regarding its water consumption.

For the foreseeable future, golf courses will face increasing pressure on reducing the usage of water (especially freshwater), maximizing the efficiency of land use, and building resilience for drought and flooding (as a result of increasingly irregular weather patterns).

The essence of golf is finding opportunity in challenge. With golf’s water challenges in mind, here are seven surprising solutions to reframe those challenges through exciting design opportunities.

7) Positioning the golf course as a living bio-filter

The first rule of “circular economy club” is to reduce.

Golf courses have devised more and more ways to reduce water usage, thanks in part to the development of Best Management Practices in all 50 states. Golf’s low-hanging fruit include reducing turf playing areas, using hand-watering methods (or conversely, implementing technology to measure and plan irrigation with precision), planting drought-resistant cultivars of grass, and using water from recycled sources.

A very old “living technology” to solve water efficiency is that of biochar. As shared in a recent article on the subject, biochar could help golf courses save up to 40% in inputs. These findings suggest that water retention may be as much of a factor in water conservation as how much water one uses.

Moreover, implementing biochar across playable turf could position the golf course as a literal charcoal filter for any contaminants found in water (or added to keep the golf course looking clean and green).

6) A circular model to serve everyone’s water needs

The second and third rules of circular economy club are to reuse and recycle. The previous solution (biochar-amended soils) would help with reducing, reusing, and recycling a golf course’s water needs, but the latter two open up other possibilities.

Golf courses rarely exist in isolation. In most cases, golf courses are in residential areas or include a large resort property. With residences and resorts come even greater needs for water, not to mention waste management.

Enter the solution of circularity. By being a living bio-filter, the golf course can take waste streams and graywater from local residences and then treat and process them back into potable water on-site. Then the land provides not only a game to support the joy and ongoing development of its participants, but even a far more essential purpose of improving the water cycle for surrounding communities.

One such example was discussed in our previous article on the Laguna resorts. Laguna Phuket Golf Club, built upon a formerly abandoned tin mining facility, built on-site irrigation lagoons that treat gray water from the laundry facilities of the resort.

5) Artificial tee boxes

Again, the first principle of responsible water usage should be to reduce consumption.

Tee boxes have a number of problems. They typically consume more water than other areas of turf (because tees and greens are priorities for the golfer’s experience). They also damage more easily from overuse, thus requiring more attention and maintenance.

Why not reduce such burdens altogether by taking grass out of this equation? I wouldn’t personally want to play on an artificial green (the ball might respond differently and the experience may feel less authentic).

Artificial tees, however, are well within the imagination, as driving ranges and popular off-course venues like Topgolf and Drive Shack have already been using them for years, with no apparent harm to the player’s experience -- quite the opposite it would appear, as off-course play has grown at a significantly faster rate than on-course participation.

Artificial tees need not be made from virgin plastic materials either. One might imagine recycled plastics, or better yet, bio-plastics being in play.

In my opinion, the tee box is one of only 18 places on the typical golf course where a golfer deserves to have a perfect lie. It’s possible to provide that perfect lie without consuming any water -- that is, to provide a better playing experience within the context of sustainability and stewardship.

4) Chinampas (Floating Gardens)

Chinampas, also referred to as “floating gardens” (for their illusory appearance of floating), were small man-made islands developed in ancient meso-american (specifically Aztec) agriculture. They have been proposed as an “old-but-new” solution for sustainable agriculture.

Chinampas are developed from dredging the soil of a shallow lake bed and redepositing into man-made islands consisting of fertile soil. The islands likely include other sediments such as waste (typically from dead plants) and produce a higher yield with fewer resources.

For golf, safety could be a concern in implementing such an agricultural method, and we’re probably unlikely to see greenkeeping crews canoeing around chinampas to harvest crops. With that note, this still presents an exciting design possibility that reframes the utility of golf’s out of play areas.

Could golf rent out underutilized acreage to partners who might find more productive uses while adding character to the venue?

3. Mollusk aquaculture

Along a similar line of design thinking to chinampas, golf can look more broadly at ways to get value from on-site water, which it mainly uses to keep grass hydrated. Unfortunately, the fertilizers and chemical “-cides” used to feed and protect grass can also pollute surrounding waterways, leading to algae blooms and other challenges.

Systems can be designed to use wasteful by-products and even transform them into local, tasty, and popular restaurant items. The Hualalai Resort in Hawaii features an oyster aquaculture system adjacent to the 5th hole at its Weiskopf Course, which produces 400-1000 oysters per week. In a form of sustainable alchemy, this 3-acre ecosystem turns nutrient runoff into an ethical protein source.

Mollusks have primitive nervous systems incapable of registering pain, and they are particularly well-suited to filter nitrogen (a primary contaminant from golf courses).

2. Beemats (or “Floating Wetlands”)

In early 2020, just before the pandemic hit, I was able to speak with Forest and Steve Beeman in person at the Golf Industry Show in Orlando to chat about their Beemats venture.

Beemats sells patented floating hydroponic beds that clean up nutrient runoff and provide a platform for vegetation to grow. Similar to chinampas but with simpler design, possibilities include waste reduction, more efficient resource consumption, and even crop production.

Forest Beeman and I even discussed hemp production as an exciting possibility. Imagine turning nutrient runoff into CBD or even bioplastics (perhaps the same bioplastics used to create artificial, water-responsible tee boxes).

1. Eco-Machines

*Image via Ben Vitalis Green Vision Blog*

In John Todd’s book Healing Earth, he tells the journey of how he partnered with nature to develop “living technologies” that mimic the functions of ecosystems. An early chapter includes his story about the Harwich Landfill of Cape Cod, which included septic tank lagoons containing most of the EPA’s top fifteen priority pollutants and was at least 40% more concentrated than typical sewage. His “living eco-machines” filtered this wastewater into clear and potable water with 99.9% of contaminants removed.

Such “eco-mimetic” systems can be designed for a variety of purposes including waste treatment, food production, and ecological repair. Basically, these systems include water tanks or “ecology cells” that use various sediments, flora, fauna, and microbial life to re-create the different stages and flows of an ecosystem.

The potential here for net value creation in golf is obvious, regardless of cost, but a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis (and a more technical deep dive) seems warranted in the near-future.

In the meantime, check out Healing Earth and John Todd’s website John Todd Ecological Design.