Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 | 8:17 a.m.
A UNLV researcher is working to keep the green on the fairways and in the wallets of Las Vegas golf course operators.
Dale Devitt, director of the UNLV Center for Urban Water Conservation, is working with the Black Mountain Golf and Country Club to find the optimum mix of turf care, fertilizer and, perhaps most importantly, water for Southern Nevada.
This is not your casual lawn care, Devitt noted recently.
It's "what we're calling precision agriculture," he said. The project is using lawn mowers outfitted with both global positioning satellites to determine position on the golf fairways and greens and sophisticated sensing equipment to determine the turf's health.
The point is not just to make the grass green, but to aid an industry that is important to Las Vegas and is struggling with new rules to cut water use, Devitt said.
"What we're basically doing is trying to help the golf industry," he said. "The golf resort industry is an integral part of the Las Vegas experience. One of every 25 visitors to Las Vegas comes here to play. They generate $250 million a year just in greens fees.
"They also rent hotel rooms and play in the casinos, so the actual impact to the community is much, much larger."
Golf clubs, however, are finding it a tough environment to operate in as regional water distributors are raising the price of water and asking the clubs to get by with less of it.
"We want to make our golf courses the most water-efficient in the United States," Devitt said. "Golf courses have a place here, but they need to be as efficient as possible. We're providing the management tools. We're trying to move the golf course industry into the 21st century."
Although Devitt already has taken the tricked-out lawnmower onto the fairways at Black Mountain, the research will formally begin in December, he said. The study should take two years.
In that time, Devitt and his colleagues will look at minute variables, including the irrigation levels, cutting height of the blades of grass, fertilizer effectiveness and "growth regulators" that actually stunt plants.
Devitt said the research could help golf course supervisors throughout the desert Southwest, particularly in Nevada's neighboring states of California and Arizona. And others with an interest in growing grass, such as park operators and school systems with athletic fields, might gain insight into the appropriate mix of variables.
Devitt said it is not yet clear what the final cost of the project will be, but so far he has commitments from the Minnesota-based Toro Co., which built the mower for the project, and Nebraska-based LiCor Corp., which has contributed sophisticated measuring equipment for the project.
The technology has built a cyber-mower that will provide real-time information on the health of the turf.
"As the individual goes out and mows the turf, he's collecting data, even if he doesn't know it," Devitt said.
One of those with a keen interest in the research is Ted Tylman, executive director of the Nevada Golf Course Owners Association, a trade group that represents more than half of the state's 112 courses.
Tylman said all golf courses in and around Clark County are removing turf and cutting back on the use of water, but they also are seeking a balance that keeps the turf green while conserving as much of the resource as possible.
Tylman, a former president of the Black Mountain golf club, said ground zero for the research will be the No. 2 hole at Black Mountain. A weather station that will contribute to the data for the project is already up, he noted.
Tylman said his group and the National Golf Course Owners Association are both interested in the project. In addition to the practical reality of turf management and cost control that is always of interest to the golf course owners and operators, golf courses also have a public relations incentive to minimize water waste during a time of drought and growing water demand, he said.
"It would allow us to know what the bottom line is before we totally lose turf," he said, pointing out the worst-case scenario from mismanaging grass on the courses. At the same time, "I'm sure there are courses that are putting water where we really don't need it, and fertilizer and such, too," he added.
Stan Spraul, association president, said the question of how much Nevada and national golf course owners groups will contribute to the research effort is still being decided, but the interest is definitely there.
"It will be another tool for course superintendents to have to become the best water managers in the state and in the country," he said.
Launce Rake can be reached at 259-4127 or at [email protected].
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