Golf courses use a great deal of water for irrigation and other purposes. A typical 150-acre golf course uses approximately 200 million gallons of water a year, enough to supply 1,800 residences with 300 GPD of water. If the golf course is associated with a golf community or resort, domestic water use must also be taken into account.
On average, 46 percent of golf courses use on-site water wells. These are natural water sources that sit deep in the ground. A shaft is dug down to the water source, and then the water is extracted for irrigation. As with ground-level water, the levels can fluctuate through the year and can also be used by municipal water companies as well.
But golf courses, while a small contributor to water use in comparison to sectors like public use and hydroelectric power, suck up more water than the state’s livestock.
And it’s not just Water Authority incentives and penalties driving the golf-course conservation efforts; the links also save big on water bills. It’s not uncommon for Vegas golf courses to pay $1 million or more a year just for water. Next to labor, water’s the most expensive item in a course’s maintenance budget.
Audubon International estimates that the average American course uses 312,000 gallons per day. In a place like Palm Springs, where 57 golf courses challenge the desert, each course eats up a million gallons a day.
Depending on the location of the golf course and the climate, an 18-hole course can use on average 2.08 billion gallons of water per day. Depending on the amount of water needed, a typical golf course can spend between $7,000 and $108,000 per year.
Using water use data nationally, an 18-hole golf course uses an average of 152.5 acre-feet of water per year to irrigate 80.7 acres of turfgrass.
A healthy, high-quality turf may need up to 1¾ inches of water per week to keep it growing vigor- ously under hot, dry, windy summer conditions. This total water requirement includes both rainfall and irrigation. Turfgrass will require much less water when the weather is cool or cloudy.
Water use varies significantly by agronomic region. An average 18-hole golf facility in the Southwest region uses an average of 4 acre-feet of water per irrigated acre per year. An average 18-hole golf facility in the Northeast region uses an average of 0.8 acre-feet of water per irrigated acre per year.
Courses around the U.S. suck up around approximately 2.08 billion gallons of water per day for irrigation. That's about 130,000 gallons per day per course, according to the golf industry.
Golf, he said, consumes less than 1% of all water used in California, but nearly 25% of Coachella Valley water.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. golf courses consume more than 2 billion gallons of water per day, and since one in every 17 of U.S. courses is located in arid and semi-arid California, our 921 courses consume a sizable chunk of that total daily.
Water use has a major influence on the playability of a golf course. Judicious water use that emphasizes firm, fast conditions is more enjoyable for all skill levels of golfers and is a goal that the USGA strongly supports.
As with mowing, rough areas and fairways are more drought-tolerant than greens, which, in dry, hot weather, need to be watered at least every day or two.
Golf courses use a variety of water sources for turfgrass irrigation including groundwater, surface water (lakes, rivers and reservoirs), recycled water, and municipal potable water supplies.
Twice a week is sufficient, and even three times in' the driest weather would do no harm. Sprinkling keeps the roots so near the surface they are more likely to be affected by the heat of the sun. I favor watering very late in the day, but would prefer to have it done at night, if possible.
Depending on the location of the golf course and the climate, an 18-hole course can use on average 2.08 billion gallons of water per day. Depending on the amount of water needed, a typical golf course can spend between $7,000 and $108,000 per year. However, many courses use various methods to water their turfgrass spaces to help limit their need ...
As well as trying to reduce pollution, rising temperatures have seen more demand on water supplies that has to be managed to ensure there is always fresh water available. Over the past few years, more countries have had to impose water restrictions and spend more money on their infrastructure to ensure no water is lost.
Wetting Agents. Wetting agents are used by many courses to help the irrigation process. The agent is sent along the pipes with the water to lower the surface tension. This allows the water to pass easily through the soil and spread further.
This grass also needs irrigation , but that increases the demand for water. To counteract this, some courses have removed the areas of grass that are not needed and replaced it with cacti can desert-loving plants. These need little irrigation, and they are also a good contrast to the green fairways and greens.
Many countries have now imposed water restrictions on all of the businesses and farms that use water and limited the amount they can use in a year. Golf courses have a two-fold use for water. The first and greatest use is on the maintained turfgrass.
However, research has been going on into alternatives that not only need less water but can also handle more salt. Poor quality water often has a higher salt content, which can be bad for the grasses. By increasing their tolerance, water from more sources can be used.
Along with this, they will often have other facilities such as clubhouses, conference facilities, and other areas that may also need to use water. The restrictions placed on golf courses has meant that they have had to implement strategies to monitor and save water where possible.
These factors can be climate, type of turf grass, agronomic and soils conditions, regulations, and water av ailability.
Irrigation Needs. Each course will vary because of size of the irrigated area and management practices. Also, water use each year will vary depending on climatic conditions. The timing and amount of rainfall, temperatures each month, and sunshine. There is no fixed answer.
Golf courses use a great deal of water for irrigation and other purposes. A typical 150-acre golf course uses approximately 200 million gallons of water a year, enough to supply 1,800 residences with 300 GPD of water.
Golf Course Water Reuse. Water reuse is a great option for golf course irrigation. According to the United States Golf Association, in 2014, 13% of U.S. golf courses were irrigating with recycled water. In Orange County, for example, as many as 60% of golf courses incorporated water reuse.
In Orange County, for example, as many as 60% of golf courses incorporated water reuse. Using recycled water is not only better for the environment, but it’s also cheaper than using potable water. However, water reuse can come with its own challenges. For one, many sources of wastewater are excessively saline and contain other contaminants, ...
In a 2020 article, The New York Times published recommendations for finding a sustainable golf community , advising home-seekers to consider among other factors, how much and when a golf community uses water and whether it uses recycled wastewater to irrigate.
If the golf course is associated with a golf community or resort, domestic water use must also be taken into account. Golf course managers also have to maintain water features like ponds and water hazards, which are highly vulnerable to eutrophication and associated odors, algae, and toxicity.
For one, many sources of wastewater are excessively saline and contain other contaminants, so they need to be treated before use. Many golf courses — notably in California, Florida, and Arizona — have seen benefits from desalinating recycled water with reverse osmosis (RO).
Using water use data nationally, an 18-hole golf course uses an average of 152.5 acre-feet of water per year to irrigate 80.7 acres of turfgrass. This is an aver- age of 1.9 acre-feet of irrigation water per irrigated acre (Figure 7, Appendix Table 6).
Most 18-hole golf facilities utilize surface waters like ponds, lakes or on-site irrigation wells. Approximately 14 percent of golf facilities use water from a public municipal source and approximately 12 percent use recycled water as a source for irrigation.
EThe U.S. golf economy generated $76 billion of goods and services in the year 2005. This is larger than newspaper publishing ($50.1 billion), performing arts and spectator sports ($64.7 billion), and the motion picture and video ($73.9 billion) industries. EGolf generated a total economic impact of $195 .
Golf facilities utilize multiple sources for irrigation. ranging from surface water (ponds, lakes, streams) and ground water sources to water provided by a local municipality (Appendix Table 10). Many golf facilities have more than one source of water to use for irrigation.
Arid areas of the country have higher water demands due to the climate, continual turf growth and because courses are open for golf use throughout the year. Water use was compared across agronomic regions by water use per acre, per number of holes (9, 18 and 27) and total use per agronomic region (Appendix Table 6).
Farms, of course, are the state’s biggest water user, consuming 80 percent of the state’s developed water.
Although no one has estimated the specifics of the state’s water use since 2003, officials predict that the cuts will save nearly 500 billion gallons of H2O over nine months—enough for all Los Angeles homes and businesses for about two years.
The Water Authority has paid out more than $25 million to area golf courses to remove upwards of 1,000 acres of turfgrass, nearly 20% of all golf-course property in the area. This has conserved billions of gallons of water.
It’s not uncommon for Vegas golf courses to pay $1 million or more a year just for water. Next to labor, water’s the most expensive item in a course’s maintenance budget. In fact, conservation efforts have been so successful that the golf courses now use only 7% of the city’s total water consumption — less than the casinos.
There aren’t even any cactus, just desert scrub like creosote, plus some cholla and Joshua trees. These contrasts clash on the Las Vegas area’s 56 golf courses, according to a recent count. A sizable percentage of the tens of millions of annual visitors to Las Vegas come here primarily to play golf on some of the finest courses in the country.
Las Vegas is the driest city of the 280 largest cities in the U.S. In an average year, it receives all of 4.5 inches of rain. (Phoenix gets twice as much.) In addition, the temperature ranges are fairly extreme for a desert, upwards of a 110-degree swing, with average lows in the 30s in December and January.
But then the drought hit and by the early 2000s, a major area-wide conservation effort was put into place; since then, Las Vegas has become one of the most water-smart cities in the country.
Golf course watering is very high-tech, thanks to centrally controlled irrigation systems with their own on-site weather stations tied to the irrigation computer (so that watering is based on localized evapotranspiration data).