Sonoma County Golf Courses (Golf Master Tips) - The reservoirs are dwindling, the aquifers are drying up and the fingers are starting to point. A lush lawn can be a source of suspicion during this seemingly endless drought, a hand-washed car the subject of arched eyebrows. And if we’re looking for targets, what could serve better than acre after acre of vivid green turf, sitting right across the road from parched brown fields?
In the eyes of some, golf courses, those symbols of prosperous leisure, have begun to stand for something else entirely: water waste in a land of shortage.
“There is a big perception out there, particularly with the non-golfer,” said Bob Harchut, general manager of The Links at Bodega Harbour. “They see the golf course being watered, and they think we’re wasting money. It’s like, these damn golf courses, they’re using water that could be used for houses and gardens.”
Harchut is not mistaken. There is growing sentiment that golf courses are bad guys in this Western water war.
Last summer, for example, the pop-culture site VICE.com ran an essay under the headline, “Instead of Killing Lawns, We Should Be Banning Golf.” The author, Charles Davis, wrote, “When more than half the state is categorized as suffering the most severe form of drought, … old rich white men should not be driving little carts around on beautifully manicured green lawns in the middle of a (bleeping) desert.”
Certainly, there are golf courses in Palm Springs and other arid areas of Southern California and the Central Valley that rely on massive amounts of municipal water to survive. Those courses are experiencing some trauma in the wake of mandatory, statewide water restrictions announced by Gov. Jerry Brown on April 1. Here in Sonoma County and its surrounding area, though, the courses are better positioned.
Most of them, in fact, don’t use a drop of potable water.
Take the four facilities managed by the Tayman Park Golf Group, all of them nine-hole courses on public land. Fairgrounds Golf Course in Santa Rosa, Ukiah Municipal Golf Course and Healdsburg Golf Club at Tayman Park all are on well water. (Ukiah is making long-term plans to convert to treated wastewater.) McInnis Park Golf Center in San Rafael is already on recycled water, which is treated to the tertiary stage before being piped in.
Harchut’s course in Bodega Bay uses wastewater, as does Northwood Golf Club in Monte Rio. Oakmont Golf Club and Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club both use well water for their playing surfaces. Jennifer Burke, deputy director of water and engineering resources for the City of Santa Rosa, says that not a single golf course uses city tap water for landscaping. (Golf course article source: Pressdemocrat.com)
In the eyes of some, golf courses, those symbols of prosperous leisure, have begun to stand for something else entirely: water waste in a land of shortage.
Sonoma County Golf Courses
“There is a big perception out there, particularly with the non-golfer,” said Bob Harchut, general manager of The Links at Bodega Harbour. “They see the golf course being watered, and they think we’re wasting money. It’s like, these damn golf courses, they’re using water that could be used for houses and gardens.”
Harchut is not mistaken. There is growing sentiment that golf courses are bad guys in this Western water war.
Last summer, for example, the pop-culture site VICE.com ran an essay under the headline, “Instead of Killing Lawns, We Should Be Banning Golf.” The author, Charles Davis, wrote, “When more than half the state is categorized as suffering the most severe form of drought, … old rich white men should not be driving little carts around on beautifully manicured green lawns in the middle of a (bleeping) desert.”
Certainly, there are golf courses in Palm Springs and other arid areas of Southern California and the Central Valley that rely on massive amounts of municipal water to survive. Those courses are experiencing some trauma in the wake of mandatory, statewide water restrictions announced by Gov. Jerry Brown on April 1. Here in Sonoma County and its surrounding area, though, the courses are better positioned.
Most of them, in fact, don’t use a drop of potable water.
Take the four facilities managed by the Tayman Park Golf Group, all of them nine-hole courses on public land. Fairgrounds Golf Course in Santa Rosa, Ukiah Municipal Golf Course and Healdsburg Golf Club at Tayman Park all are on well water. (Ukiah is making long-term plans to convert to treated wastewater.) McInnis Park Golf Center in San Rafael is already on recycled water, which is treated to the tertiary stage before being piped in.
Sonoma County Golf Courses
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