Innovative Ideas for Municipal Golf Courses

Dear Community Golf Fan,

Welcome to Reading the Green 2016, Vol.3; the four times a year, golf related brief that focuses on improving the viability of Municipally owned golf facilities through the latest trends, creative uses for golf courses, and recent developments in resource management. Staples Golf Resource Group is a golf design and development consultancy that has served communities like yours for the past 14 years.

In this volume, we’ll look at a few amazing breakthroughs the Energy Industry is working to achieve, which will have impacts on all of our everyday lives. We’ll also introduce you to “Links as Labs;” a wonderful educational program that gets kids out of the classroom and onto the golf course thanks to the First Green. And lastly, we’ll show you how one golf course in New Mexico is researching a not-so-new water delivery system to eliminate waste from traditional sprinkler dispersion. Please read on!

1.21 Gigawatts?!

To read where the Energy Industry is going these days is beyond exciting! Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, is currently building the largest lithium-ion battery production facility in the world, outside of Reno, Nevada. When fully ramped in a few years, the “Gigafactory” will be making 40% of the world’s most efficient batteries. But they won’t be making just car batteries; they’ll be making them for your home.

Essentially, your home will produce its own power endlessly AND have the ability to store that energy for use at night or during overcast/ rainy days. Your home is now your own personal power plant; throw in an electric car (which are becoming cheaper and more reliable every year) and say goodbye to paying for gas too! We think that reality is pretty cool! Click here to read about this fascinating trajectory.

Links as Labs!

You may have heard of the First Tee, but have you heard of the First Green? This is a great STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) organization that works with schools, golf courses, and local community members to host field trips to educate students about the science behind maintaining a golf course.

“Links as Labs” is the name of this neat program, and it really opens up these kid’s minds to the essential balances integral to what is essentially a manmade ecosystem. If you’re interested in learning more please check out their guide to hosting a field trip, and have a look at some of the First Green’s youtube videos. This is a great educational opportunity for your community’s youth.

The Future of Irrigation?

The goal of increasing resource efficiency on a golf course is never ending, and a unique new approach for watering turf is being research at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, New Mexico; subsurface drip irrigation! We know- drip irrigation is not necessarily new, but for watering a golf course, it certainly is. Through a grant offered by the USGA, New Mexico State University, in conjunction with the staff at the Club at Las Campanas, is determining how this extremely efficient water delivery system can be effectively used on a golf course.

NMSU’s turf specialist Bernd Leinauer explains; “Subsurface drip irrigation can save water from 20 to 90 percent of what is used by sprinkler systems. Las Campanas is one of the first golf courses in the nation to install this type of system in tee boxes.” Click here to watch the video on how this research is shaping up, and why it’s being called a success. And here’s alink to a similar grant program offered by the Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG), if your course is considering some type of study.

That about does it for us with this newsletter. Please remember, we present Community Links webinars at no charge to administrators of struggling municipal facilities. If that's of interest to you, please tell us about your golf course by clicking here. Great decisions start with open ended dialog amongst willing parties, so let’s start a positive, open dialog today.

Sincerely,

Andy Staples, ASGCA