Golf Courses Green Despite Drought
By BILL RETTEW JR.

SEBRING — Although it’s the high season for golfers from out of state and the low season for rainfall, area golf course workers said Wednesday that the greens are still vibrant green.

The amount of valuable water used by many local golf courses to keep the links fresh is limited.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) limits or budgets how much water can be pumped onto many area golf courses.
Several local golf course workers said that although Swiftmud declared a Phase II severe drought in January, area courses are still in excellent shape.

David Bell is the golf course superintendent for both championship golf courses at Sun ’n Lake Golf and Country Club.

Bell talked about walking a tight rope while trying to judge when to best use water in the sprinklers versus how much to conserve, since Swiftmud usually caps water usage from six to 10 years in advance.

“It’s a huge burden,” said Bell. “This past summer we suffered a tremendous amount since there was not a normal amount of rainfall. We count on rainfall to subsidize, but are limited to what we can use.

“For the circumstances, we’re doing pretty well.”
Bell said golf courses are limited to watering the actual playing surface, including greens, tees and fairways which are all in excellent shape, but not the rough areas. During the wet summer, Bermuda grass takes over while rye grass is usually prevalent for the dry winter.

The superintendent said that he was thankful for several unanticipated winter rain storms, but still since Sun ‘N Lake is further restricted by the South Water Use Caution Act (SWCA), some areas of the golf course have suffered damage.

“Lots of areas are not irrigated at all,” said Bell. “Some areas are desiccated. But we should be getting more plentiful rain water soon, and some areas we’ll have to regrass.”

Michael Molligan is communications director for Swiftmud, which controls water use in much of Highlands County. He said that overall usage and recent lower-than-average rainfall have both contributed to the severe drought. 

“The real concern is that if we don’t get significantly above average rainfall, these lakes will continue to drop,” said Molligan.

Andy Desling, assistant golf pro at Sebring Golf, noted that the putting greens look good, but the rough is suffering since course owners decided not to reseed during the fall with rye grass seed.

Don Elwell is the general manager at the Kenilworth Lodge, which caters to hundreds of golfers yearly. He said that room rentals are up, with the number of golfers this year down slightly.

Elwell said the biggest month for golfing is April when the rates dramatically drop and golfers flock to Highland County. He said he’d recently heard nothing but good reports concerning the quality of area courses.