USGA and course owners push for better water conservation

By Jim Bebbington

The USGA and some golf course operators are continuing to urge the golf industry in the mountain states and the Southwest to rapidly improve water conservation efforts.

The Colorado River Basin remains a contested source for water for agriculture, recreation and public usage, and several golf industry sources say they want courses to get ahead of the situation rather than wait.

The USGA this month put out a Water Conservation Playbook to the golf industry, recommending more techniques for courses to use less water.

The report goes into deep research into how courses and communities have used water. One of the case studies featured is of Littleton’s Ravenna Country Club and its recent putting green renovations.

Several of Ravenna’s greens were originally designed with severe slopes that meant large areas of the greens could not be used for hole locations and other areas received too much foot traffic and needed more water to recover. Some greens had only 20 percent of the putting green area that could be used for hole locations.

Three greens were modified, the report said, with sod from high points of the greens used to fill in lower areas. The work was done in-house and the greens were back in operation within a week.

The new greens allowed the wear-and-tear of the greens to now be spread out across the entire green areas, the report said.

Among the tactics the USGA recommends courses explore are moving to turfgrasses that naturally require less water, using recycled water for irrigation, and having a precision irrigation system that applies water just to the areas needed.

“Golf is currently in a time of great growth, but the threat of water availability and cost, combined with changing weather patterns, poses long-term threats to our playing fields,” said Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA. “We want to put the best intelligence into the hands of those who are making decisions and working on courses every day, and spur innovation toward a more sustainable game.”

Whitey O’Malley, the owner of Saddleback Golf Course in Firestone, has been advocating course owners speed up their water conservation uses. He is the vice president of the National Golf Course Owners Association and will be president in 2026.

“I am pushing for another water conference to include all participants getting their water from the Colorado River,” he said recently. “As we all know, there is not nearly enough water for all participants, resulting in the constant threat of ‘dead pool’ in Lake Powell/Mead. Bottom line (is) golf has to have their head in the game.”

He said front-range courses like his have their challenges, but they pale in comparison to the courses in Las Vegas, Phoenix and California, where communities may have to begin rationing water use.

“Green grass is going to become a harder sell when local families are restricted to two showers a day,” he said.

The USGA water usage report can be found at USGA.Org/Water.