Water management at Golf de Servanes

At Golf de Servanes, preserving the environment is an absolute priority. Faced with the increasing scarcity of water and the resulting restrictions, our team adapts daily and works actively to find solutions to help preserve this precious natural resource.

Our water supply comes from the Serre-Ponçon lake, located upstream from the Golf de Servanes. We work closely with the managers of the Alpilles canals to monitor our consumption, maintenance practices and efficient use of this precious resource.

We have gradually modernised our watering system, investing nearly two million euros in total. This allows us to control our watering very precisely. Our installation includes individual sprinklers, a modern pumping station and high-performance software, enabling us to save a considerable amount of water. This precision is backed up by a daily soil moisture reading using a water probe. This means we know exactly how much moisture is in the subsoil of each green on the course. We aim for a minimum level of 23% and consider 27% to be ideal. It is important to understand that providing a large quantity of water will not ensure the health of the course.

Another feature of our golf course is that it is often exposed to the wind. Wind is not an enemy, but rather an ally, as it helps to prevent disease by drying out the grass. However, we need to be vigilant about our humidity levels. This requires daily anticipation and observation. We have gone from an annual consumption of over 160,000 m3 to just over 100,000 m3 in a very short space of time. I’m convinced that we can further improve our overall cultural practices by installing grass varieties that are more resistant to heat and disease, while stepping up our mechanical operations.

Simon Valmy