MIDLAND, Texas — On Tuesday, March 19, Midland County officially started its efforts to bring in a new county-run golf course. While the community knows there is a need for more golf, the dry and arid environment makes maintaining quality golf courses no easy task.
When it comes to watering the course, there is a lot that goes into that maintenance process.
Water and the golf course have a long-standing relationship.
“It’s kind of always staying on top of your greens and making sure you’re on top of it every day," said Tyson Kerby, golf course superintendent at Hogan Park Golf Course in Midland.
But in this relationship, the West Texas environment causes friction.
“It gets very difficult at times, especially the last few years going through the three- or four-month droughts where we’ve had little rain and temperatures above 100 degrees," Kerby said.
Hogan Park Golf Course is a property that has five water wells that are used for irrigation.
“Lucky enough our water wells do produce a good quantity of water," Kerby said. "We have plenty of water to water this 36 holes. It comes down to the quality of water. Over the years the quality has slid down over decades and decades…just like all around Midland.”
The quality is the real problem for West Texas golf courses.
“Very salty water," Kerby said. "It hinders the growth. It also makes it harder to penetrate the soil -- you’re only getting water down so far. So, these products injecting into the water help you get that saturation [and] help make the nutrients in the soil more available.”
The amount of good water used is what makes the difference.
“We use some chemical injection systems in our pump houses to try to negate the problems, but at this point in time we are still using well water," Kerby said.
Well water that is keeping this relationship running smoothly for West Texans who depend on it.
“We’ve just continued to grow each and every year in my five years here, and the numbers just continue to go up," Kerby said. "People wanting tournaments continues to go up, so I don’t see it going down any time soon.”
Kerby added that they do collaborate with other golf course superintendents and golf course managers in Midland. They also collaborate with golf course superintendents in similar regions like Amarillo, San Angelo and Abilene during West Texas Golf Superintendents Association meetings.
As rounds of golf continue to grow in West Texas, both the efforts to maintain course quality and the challenge are constant.