USGA spends millions studying sustainability, especially for water

The U.S. Golf Association doesn’t just run championships and make rules. The governing body of golf in the U.S. and Mexico also has invested nearly $47 million dollars in the past four decades to promote turfgrass and environmental research.

It’s money well spent, as the USGA says its recently renamed Mike Davis Program for Advancing Golf Course Management and its related research saves the golf industry an estimated $1.92 billion annually. Much of that comes in the areas of water savings and more efficient use of fertilizer and pesticide.

In an era of droughts and increasingly demanding water restrictions, particularly in the U.S. West, such savings and improved agronomic practices not only help golf course superintendents provide better playing surfaces, in many ways the program has helped make the sport possible at all in the desert environments of the West.

As major lakes go dry and the Colorado River provides decreased flow to seven states, golf is often targeted as a waste of water. The USGA’s stewardship in sustainability has become even more important to an industry that provides a $192 billion annual economic impact involving some 2 million jobs in the U.S., as measured by the American Golf Industry Coalition.

“Golf Course superintendents have always been under scrutiny for water use,” Brian Whitlark, the USGA’s senior consulting agronomist for the West Region, told Golfweek. “… Everyone is in the same boat, and everyone is concerned about water use. I think we’re all – golf course superintendents, the research community, USGA agronomists – we’re all working together to find methods, strategies and technologies to reduce water use with the goal of still producing a good playing surface and keep business thriving. We’re all working toward that, and we’re definitely making strides.”

Many of those strides are the result of the Mike Davis Program, which was launched in 1982 and until 2021 was known as the Turfgrass Environmental Research Program before being renamed in honor of the former USGA executive director/CEO.

In 2022, the program opted to provide funding for more than 80 university research projects, many of which focus on reducing water usage either though improved irrigation or the development of more drought-resistant grasses. The USGA said it invested $1.9 million in those programs in 2022, with more than a dozen universities receiving grants for both short-term and long-term projects.

“We’re…