The subject of water is a serious topic for course owners these days. During a recent filming at Pasatiempo Golf Club, TV correspondent Stone Phillips (left) chats with CGCOA Board Member Scott Hoyt about water conservation.
Golf Industry Treading Water Two factors militate in strong favor of water and energy costs continuing to spiral out of control: 1) water providers/districts are under a statutory mandate to reduce by a factor of at least 20% the amount of water consumed by their customers by the year 2020; and 2) those same water providers/districts continue to hew to a business model the primary function of which is the sale of water, necessitating that as usage drops, prices must go up at least as much to make up for the shortfall in sales. Given that water is the second highest item on the expense ledgers of virtually every golf course in California (labor is the highest), the squeeze represented by this phenomenon presents a strong challenge to the industry’s continuing viability. With the game’s decline in popularity and the middle class’ decline in fortunes, simply passing those costs along to club members and daily fee patrons is not an appealing option. If cutting back on usage cannot accomplish anything more than treading water, what options, if any, are available to the industry? Short of convincing public utilities and quasi-public utilities to change their business models, the only alternative is to replace dependence upon expensive imported sources with local water
sources – e.g., recycled water, recharged aquifers, storm water capture, desalinization, etc. The problem is that all of the techniques that would displace imported water require enormous investments in the infrastructure necessary to build treatment plants, construct miles of pipe, develop recapture protocols, and engineer all of the above. This poses a consequential choice for the industry: Do we muddle forth viewing the problem through the prism of the next quarterly report until such time as the industry finishes the inevitable process of shrinking in size to meet the new realities of a cost structure dictated by enormous water/energy costs, or do we begin to view the problem through the longer view of supporting reasonable investment in various forms of reuse that in the long run promise the only reliable route to actually lowering those costs? This article was provided by guest columnist Craig Kessler, Director of Governmental Affairs for the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and a founding member of the California Alliance for Golf (CAG), a statewide organization committed to protecting and promoting the game and business of golf.
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