Fast and affirmed

In California’s Sierra Foothills, near the southern pointed tip of Calaveras County, Saddle Creek Resort wears dead rye rough grasses like badges of honor.

The golf course is easily distinguishable now from its comparatively green state in 2012 and 2013, before what became one of California’s worst recorded droughts started heating up and management spent more than $60,000 and 10-hour-day, seven-day work weeks on water conservation.

Together, superintendent Pat Smyth and general manager Rick Morgan spearheaded a water mitigation program that is equal parts moral and economic. They have altered their irrigation practices to purposely allow more than half of the course’s maintained acreage to die. Paired with other measures, like creating paths for golf carts so as not to tear up the dead turf, the team have embraced new aesthetics, all while saving costs on water and maintenance and keeping golfers satisfied.

Designed by Carter Morrish, Saddle Creek’s 18-hole championship course opened in 1996. Before the drought, the course, which sits on Castle & Cooke-owned property, touted about 120 acres of maintained acreage. Not long after the drought hit in 2012, management allowed that number to decline, until it hit about 55.

Prior to the drought, Saddle Creek’s irrigation supply consisted of about 70 percent raw water pumped from nearby Lake Tulloch and about 30 percent recycled water. The first of the major water conservation efforts at Saddle Creek took place in 2013, Smyth says. Crew members began to water fewer outer bank areas and adjust a number of full-circle irrigation heads to part circle.

In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown requested statewide voluntary water cuts of 20 percent. The Calaveras County Water District issued a water shortage contingency plan, cutting water use by 35 percent at schools, parks and commercial landscapes, such as golf courses, says Joel Metzger, water conservation coordinator for the district.

In compliance, management at Saddle Creek took new chances, such as adopting the use of wetting agents, and continued to conserve water. “It was actually the first time in my 10 years here that we were irrigating on an as-needed basis in December, which is kind of crazy,” Smyth says.

Then, in April 2015, Brown issued an executive order mandating statewide water cuts of 25 percent. That spring, the Calaveras County Water District cut Saddle Creek’s water use to recycled water only, which Smyth says was not enough to irrigate tees and greens. Following talks between the course and the water district, the district agreed to give the course 100,000 gallons of raw water a night, and later increased it to 200,000 gallons a night – a fraction of the course’s previous flow of 800,000 to 1 million gallons a night.

At the crux of Smyth’s conversation with Morgan and the resort’s golf professional at the time, Tyler Brown, was how to comply with these regulations while maintaining the course’s aesthetic look. An “obvious answer,” Morgan says, was to let the driving range die, while continuing to maintain the tee box. However, that wasn’t going to be nearly enough. The team decided to allow more than 40 acres of rough to turn dormant and yellow to make it contrast with the plush green of the rye fairways and tees and bentgrass greens.

“We didn’t have much of an alternative, other than allowing the entire golf course to go somewhat green, and just cutting everything back and losing the look of the golf course,” Morgan says.

So the crew completely cut out irrigation to the rough. Out of the course’s 1,500 to 1,600 irrigation heads, Smyth and crew took about 450 of them completely offline and limited about another 350 of them to 180-degree turns to water the fairways. They replaced approximately 200 irrigation heads to make them part circle. Smyth, assistant superintendent Brandon Russell and then-irrigation technician Josh Fleck spent 10 hours a day, seven days a week for multiple weeks altering the irrigation system, while three to four other employees hand watered. Additionally, Smyth and crew built low-flow sprinkler sets and put two on each hole; lawn and needle tined; put mobile moisture meters on tees, greens and some fairways; and installed turf guards. They also incorporated about 15 acres of dead fescue grasses around greens, tees and bunkers.

In worries that golf carts driving on the dead turf would turn a significant amount of it into dirt or mud, the team designed cart access and exit areas to and from the fairways, and advised drivers to stay within the parameters of the cart paths. At first it was difficult convincing players to stay off the rough. As intended, though, the unorthodox method worked and helped maintain the course’s new aesthetics.

It wasn’t cheap or effortless to overhaul long-established management practices. Irrigation heads alone cost about $40,000, and labor and other expenses cost at least another $20,000 to $30,000, Smyth says. “It was definitely a stressful time for me, because I’m having to run the operation and make this work,” he says. “I fell into it and I believed in it, but it was tough to know if it was going to work until we got down to it.”

Over time, the water mitigation program proved successful. The course has saved several million gallons of water—$20,000 worth in 2015—and 7 to 10 percent of its maintenance budget. “We’re not only saving on water,” Smyth says. “We’re saving on our electricity because our pumps aren’t running 12 hours a night and then all day long. They’re pretty much running 20 hours a day because our water window is shortened. So we’re saving on electricity, we’re saving on water, we’re saving on labor, because it’s dead—we don’t have to mow it—we’re not having to fertilize, we’re not having to put any herbicides or pesticides out there.”

What’s more, play has actually increased. Golfers like how the ball rolls farther and they often roll back into the fairways because the rough areas slope toward them, Morgan says. “There’s a lot to be said about ensuring that it is about the golfers, and golfers love to be able to hit the ball down the fairway and have it bounce and roll,” he says.

Following long-awaited winter rainfall and snowpack, the early spring of 2016 brought green grass growing up in the dead turf, Morgan says. In a move that might not have made sense in years past, the crew went out to kill the healthy grasses that were popping up to keep the boundaries defined and less splotchy.

In May, the Calaveras County Water District lifted the gallon water restrictions on Saddle Creek, Metzger says. The district will continue to provide the course with water from Lake Tulloch, as long as it first uses its recycled supplies.

In case the drought does linger, Smyth says, it would be in everyone’s best interest, including his own, to ease back into regular water use rather than just watering what they used to.

Crew are again maintaining target areas on the driving range with a negligible amount of water, Smyth says. They also are considering switching to drought-tolerant grass rather than cool-season grass.

If the water situation continues to improve throughout the year, the crew will overseed in the fall and bring some of the dead areas back online, says Morgan, who estimates water use will be around 30 percent less than pre-drought levels. That usage will be higher than it was in the height of the drought of 2015, but about the same as what most clubs in the area were using at that time, he says.

“If you want plush grass on your lawn and you want water coming out of your tap, everybody needs to take a serious look on just how much water is being put on your golf course,” he says. “What you can comfortably cut back on is going to help everybody. The industry is having a tough time, and things like this, I think, are going to help the overall impression of what golf is all about.”