Unpredictable weather has always kept North Shore golf course superintendents awake at night. Too much rain saturates the soil and turfgrass roots drown from insufficient oxygen. Droughts and water shortages adversely affect the health and look of grass. Late winter/early spring ice storms can kill sod.
And now local superintendents have a new worry: wildfires. Last fall, firefighters and grounds crews battled to contain brush fires near Gannon Municipal GC in Lynn and Cedar Glen in neighboring Saugus.
Last fall was the second driest in Boston history. A record 175 wildfires burned in Massachusetts in late October/early November according to the state Department of Fire Services.
Kyle Levesque, course superintendent at Gannon, and his counterpart at Cedar Glen, Matt Ellsworth, worked around the clock, water hose in hand, helping fire departments battle the blazes in bordering Lynn Woods and Breakheart reservations.
“Early in the season we got nine inches of rain in four days and then in August and September we went 30-plus days with no rain. Perfect conditions for brush fires and the probability that flames could spark up again,” said Levesque.
“I got to the course about 4:30 a.m. the day before the fire got (near the golf course). That Thursday night I got the call that Lynn was on fire. We were at the course non-stop from that Friday morning through Monday, using hoses to water the hotspots. The city’s firefighters were a little farther down the road, making sure the fire didn’t spread to the many houses near the course and Lynn Woods. My maintenance barn was dangerously close to the fire. Wind could blow ashes anywhere. The fire smoldered near the tree roots. We had to keep applying water and keep a real close eye on that.”
Levesque said three years ago Gannon had to deal with brushfires, and that experience made it easier to tackle the raging inferno this time.
“You take it day by day. There’s no controlling Mother Nature,” he said. Holes 13, 14 and 15 were affected and approximately 2000 acres of Lynn Woods Reservation were burned.
Even now, months later, hundreds of charred golf balls still litter the area around massive trees scorched by the flames. Levesque said approximately 25 large trees were cut down. The trunks of hundreds of trees are burned, and Levesque said “they will all fall some day. Every day since the fires, you can hear a crack and a thud out there somewhere.”
Lynn fire trucks were traveling on cart paths and Gannon closed the back nine that November weekend due to encroaching flames. The course is open to the public and books some 60,000 rounds a year.
Levesque is fortunate. Unless the City of Lynn declares a water ban, he is free to use as much water as needed. That’s a big plus during a drought. Not every course superintendent has that luxury. Most are limited to a certain number of gallons a day. Many have to have water trucked in. It’s expensive and a logistical nightmare getting water to every green. Fairways and tees are often neglected by necessity.
During droughts, nearly every course superintendent uses wetting agents to help keep moisture in the ground, said Levesque. “And how much water is available determines your stress level,” he said.
The most serious drought occurred in 2016. It was the hottest August and driest June, July and August in Massachusetts history. Water use was a major issue and required constant monitoring. Wind and sun sucks moisture out of the turf and greens.
By contrast, in 2023 Massachusetts experienced its second-wettest summer on record: more than 20 inches of rain.
Colin Smethurst, the agronomist who keeps Hillview GC, a busy public course in North Reading, green and lush said he monitors weather updates several times a day, even when he’s back home after work.
“How would I describe the weather of the last five or six years? Extremes. We’ve seen the driest and the wettest.
“For superintendents, everything we do is weather-dependent. Planning is a challenge. When it’s a drought year, like it was three years ago, we have to ration water. We are limited (by the town) to 100,000 gallons a night. That may seem like a lot, but it goes pretty quickly. A water ban is a water ban. Golf courses aren’t given special treatment. It is what it is. But turf is resilient. It bounces back quickly as long as there’s moisture.”
Wet days present different challenges, he said. Excessive rain can lead to soft ground, puddles, and even flooding, which can damage the turf, especially on fairways and greens. “It’s the carts that ruin it, that cause the most damage. We still mow every day.”
Smethurst, a board member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New England, said “Winter is always touch and go with ice, into February and March.” He and his staff of six cover four of the greens (#1, 14, 15, putting green) all winter, to protect the surfaces from snow and ice.
“This is a busy place, and the aim is to keep the grass on the golf course so it’s not super fast. I have an excellent staff, plus five retired guys who do the mowing.” As challenging as the weather might be, Smethurst is most frustrated by an increasing problem: golfers taking divots out of greens. “Too many miss a putt and take their frustrations out by slamming their putter into the turf.” It annoys him more than droughts or flooding rains.
Over at Essex County Club, which is a short drive from Manchester-by-the-Sea’s Singing Beach and Atlantic Ocean breezes, Director of Grounds Eric Richardson said wildfires are unlikely but he and his staff are ready for anything.
“We expect the extreme. In this microclimate, we get droughts, we get rain. In 2023 we were soaked. You have to be ready to adapt. You have a basic plan and you move the pieces around as necessary.
“My standards align with the members’. The members expect the best and they deserve it. The key is to have a good base and staff to mitigate those extremes.
“There are restrictions for water usage. Our well gets depleted over the summer, by the end of August into September sometimes we have to ship in water. All superintendents are water managers.”
Richardson said superintendents are always sharing information and paying attention to data to deal with any issue. All create a water program and adapt it to their needs. Aeration is key in the summer.
To avoid winter damage, every green and most tees are covered by large tarps.
Richardson has been Director of Grounds at Essex CC since 2007 and is only the sixth course superintendent in club history. President of GCSANE for a second year, he earned a Turf Management degree from Michigan State and was first assistant at Myopia Hunt Club for five years before he was hired at Essex. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, where wildfires are prevalent. (Cali, his hyperactive German Shorthaired Pointer is his constant companion on the course.)
“I’m often asked ‘What do you do in the winter?’ It’s a misconception. It’s year-round for me and my staff. We do everything. We even built the three pickleball courts.
“This is a 12-month-a-year job. In the summer I’m here at 4:30 a.m. seven days a week and the average day is 10-14 hours. It’s not a career, it’s a passion. You have to live and breathe it. The membership here treats me and all my staff like family. There’s no place I’d rather be.”
