Mill Creek golf course in Mebane implemented a no-carts on fairway rule last month to save water.
In an email to golfers they said,”Mill Creek and the surrounding areas are in what the United States Drought Monitor classifies as a “D4.” This entails exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses, as well as shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells.
“Because of this exceptional drought, our water sources are nearly depleted. We cannot adequately irrigate all surrounding turf with what little water we have left for use. Therefore, we must prioritize the greens, with fairways and rough becoming secondary. By limiting cart traffic on the course, we can conserve our water use for the greens.”
Last year Mill Creek pumped close to 3M gallons of water on the course in the first six months, compared to 9M this year.
CSN golf columnist Mike Mauriello said June 27, “I was at Mill Creek this past week. Usually by this time of year fairways would be green and plush. Now they are sparse and dried out. No other courses that I know of have the “no carts on fairway rule” yet. It will hurt their number of rounds played. Hopefully we will continue to get the showers that have started recently.”