CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Renovations to the golf course at Corpus Christi Country Club still have a few months to go, and the work requires daily watering to grow the grass.
But with the city under once-a-week watering restrictions, some people have called-in to the pro shop accusing the club of breaking the rules.
Turns out, they're not.
“Fortunately, we get all of our water from the city effluent," the club's PGA Head Golf Professional Brent Blackburn, said. "So, there are not restrictions on effluent water."
Erin Hawkins with the city's water utilities department confirms that.
She described effluent water as, "fully treated wastewater discharged from a wastewater treatment plant."
Hawkins says the city has provided 713,000 gallons of water per day for irrigation to all of the city's golf courses, along with the Grandstands Softball Complex and the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.
Blackburn says the country club has a direct line for effluent water from the city to a storage tank — and without it — the current water restrictions would make it almost impossible to even have a green golf course — let alone do $3 million in renovations to it.
“We’d have to hand water," he said. "And when you think about the length of a fairway, it would be very difficult to hand water all of that area.”
Blackburn hopes to have the eight month long project completed by October.
When renovations are done, he says the club will have a golf course to really be proud of — thanks in part to treated wastewater.
"We’re definitely not in the top one hundred golf courses in the state," Blackburn said. "But when we open, we will be. And for cities our size, it’ll be fantastic. We’ll be the cats meow.”
