I worked for Kamehameha Investment Corporation, the development arm of Bishop Estate, managing the lands in Keauhou-Kona, in particular, from 1977 to 1988. The Keauhou Kona Country Club was a major player (no pun intended) in the development of this resort area. I’m fully vetted on the groundskeeping schedules there, and at Makalei Country Club, where I was a groundskeeper from 1999 to 2001. So, I have a lot of hands-on experience with golf course maintenance.
I worked for Kamehameha Investment Corporation, the development arm of Bishop Estate, managing the lands in Keauhou-Kona, in particular, from 1977 to 1988. The Keauhou Kona Country Club was a major player (no pun intended) in the development of this resort area. I’m fully vetted on the groundskeeping schedules there, and at Makalei Country Club, where I was a groundskeeper from 1999 to 2001. So, I have a lot of hands-on experience with golf course maintenance.
Kathy Arroyo’s letter, complaining about early morning “gang mowers” and sprinklers, in her letter published on March 26 “Pre-dawn lawn care too much,” has some irrational suggestions and complaints.
First, she admits she’s “very familiar with maintenance machinery noise.” Evidently, on the mainland, the tee times must be late in the day, because here, tee times begin at the break of dawn. Mowers have to get ahead of the golfers, and the tee-box guy has to move the tee markers, blow down the boxes of leaf litter, put ice and water in the coolers, and set out cups for water. Believe me, this job is at the bottom of the totem pole — where the new guy/gal starts. You gotta hustle. And yes, it’s dark. We can’t wait until it’s dawn — that’s when the golfers are teeing off.
Second, she says there’s an “overuse of lawn fertilizers …” and “excessive watering.” Greens aren’t called “greens” if we don’t keep them fed a lot of nitrogen and iron. We’re not like some desert courses on the mainland where everything’s brown. And, all golf courses on the Kona side of the island are built on crushed lava, and backfilled with cinders and soils brought in from the windward side that actually has soil because of the rainfall, bountiful fauna that has, over the million years or so, had a chance to build a soil base. Irrigation at Keauhou is done mostly at night. Sometimes they have to irrigate after spot-fertilization and testing coverage. All water used at leeward golf courses is reclaimed water from sewage in a resort area that is only treated with primary flotation or sedimentation skimming (By the way, I also have a wastewater treatment plant certification of grade III from mainland management at Star-Kist Foods).
When the sprinklers are running, you can see the slight brown tinge in the color. Never drink the water from spickettes on the course. Heavy irrigation is necessary because the water drains fast. This water is what goes down the toilets, kitchens, showers, irrigation, etc. in all the hotels, businesses and condos within the resort community. Yes, Kathy, the water you use is what you see, eventually, coming out of those sprinklers — including that brown tinge.
Finally, anyone that buys or leases a home on a golf course, and doesn’t understand that they’re going to hear early morning maintenance crews, is naive. There’s no way the golf course is going to change its policies because a few dissatisfied snowbirds want to sleep in a little longer. Besides, early hours are the best hours of the new day. Aloha, Kathy.
Dennis Lawson is a resident of Kalaoa.
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not West Hawaii Today.