September 5, 2015

Although it is very dry here, due to receiving no appreciable precipitation for some time now, and combined with cycling heat waves, we are not in a drought as defined by the NJ DEP drought watch or the U.S. drought monitor. If this dry, warm weather continues much longer, that may change, and if so, there is the possibility of water use restrictions such as we had in 2000.

According to the NJ DEP drought watch, we are categorized as “moderately dry”, and as “abnormally dry” by the U.S. drought monitor. After “moderately dry” the NJ DEP has two other stages - “severe” and “extreme” The U.S. watch has three other stages – “severe”, “extreme”, and “exceptional”.

Both sites base their warnings specifically on precipitation, stream flow, and groundwater levels for regions first, and then for counties. It’s not a perfect science because rain does not fall evenly, even within a small area. For example, the last rain we had was on August 11. On that day, we received .5”, while other courses in the area reported as little as .3”, and there was an exceptional downpour near Wildwood that produced 4”. Same storm, but with some very different amounts of precipitation.  4” is a lot of rain, but let’s be realistic and understand that most of that down pour ran off the hard ground and was no help to the soil or roots, so in fact, that 4” was less helpful than our slowly falling .5”.

Nevertheless, we are dry and concerns are growing. As always, we are using our water meters to monitor soil moisture so that we only use the amount of water we need. We also have an afternoon watering crew that monitors and does any necessary hand watering on the greens, tees, and fairways. We also assign staff to hand water important rough areas that are in play. Recently, we have been assigning up to six persons or more out of our ten person staff to water, and another to repair irrigation. It hasn’t been easy, but we have an excellent staff that is going above and beyond to keep the course the best it can be under these challenging conditions.

According to the long term forecast, dryness is predicted to continue. A thunderstorm will not be enough to give any long term relief. We will need a few days of steady rain to turn things round.