WOAY-TV (Oak Hill, WV): While lawns are browning and leaves withering in the heat, local golf courses are doing everything in their power to keep the greens “green.”
Josh Howell is the Co-Owner and Superintendent at Bridge Haven Golf Club in Fayetteville, W.Va. They have a limited supply of water from the ponds on the course.
On the Front 9, Howell said, “This is one of our pump houses. This is a diesel engine. This has been here since 1992. We pull water from this pond, which is pretty good sized pond. The intake is out in the middle, so it comes through this line into this pipe. We run it through this to the engine and then back out to the course.
On the Back 9, Howell said, This is number 13 to my right. This is the pond on hole 14 behind us. This is our irrigation pump. Same deal as the front nine. We pull from this pond, and then we send it throughout the course.”
They have seen a steady decline in the pond levels, but none have dried out. The lowest the ponds have dipped in the drought is a foot and 18 inches from the bottom.
How will Debby’s rain help? Howell said, “We’ll see the ponds go up 2 or 3 inches, depending on the amount of rain, of course. The ponds aren’t super big, so we see an immediate difference. And of course, the caught the course itself immediately. So, the fairways in the teaser are kind of brown right now; if we get rain the next day you can tell a difference.”
