Wayne,
I think the turf type fine fescue is good for exisitng private clubs with regards for water savings while still giving you that manicured bluegrass look. however, given your situation where you are boxed in by trees your primary rough may receive a lot of cart traffic and the fescues don't wear well, maybe the turf type is better but probably not as good as the blues. With the newer varieties of bent grass you can keep the traffic in the fairways to relieve the strees but I assume you have poa/bent fairways so the stress on them is not good either. This is why so many private old clubs stick with the bluegrass roughs because they handle wear and look pretty and green.
On new course construction like at Lederach I went with an all fescue rough from the edge of the fairway and out to a point that is reasonably in play. It will get beat up from the carts, and it will be dirt and stressed out turf. In my view that is rough the way it is meant to be. Of course the management company looks at me in disbelief and I know when the roughs look like hell they will be telling the township the conditions are unacceptable and will try to reseed everything to blue grass. There is one thing about management companies, they know everything about every topic related to golf and are willing to tell the owner for a fee, and they will blame every one else for any preceived shortcomings, in the meantime they suck the the spirit out of the game. But that is the risk I am willing to take on Lederach because I have a fuck 'em attitude in this regard because I am going to do what I think is right for the game which I know will be the opposite of everything they want to do. The mixture we are using is as follows:
40% Big Horn Sheeps Fescue
40% Discovery Hard Fescue
10% Shadow II Chewings Fescue
10% Shademaster II Creeping Red Fescue
I would not recommend this for RGGC except for outer rough even areas in play because you can mow it.
With regard for warm season I was thinking of the following mix:
2.50 PLS lbs./acre Big Bluestem
2.50 PLS lbs./acre Indiangrass
2.0 PLS lbs./acre Little Bluestem
2.00 PLS lbs./acre Canada Wild Rye
.25 PLS lbs./acre Switchgrass
20.00 PLS lbs./acre Hard Fescue
You have to be real careful with this mix because it wants to be 4 to 6 feet high so it is definately an out of play area, but those areas exist on many courses, not a traditional favorite on an old established course though.
I think the turf type fine fescue will be good on the bunker faces and slopes around the greens, because it will be more of the traditional manicured look of the blues but with less water requirements, I just think you have to be careful in the near roughs because of cart traffic particularly on an old course, those guys just don't buy into the rustic, dirty look.
with regards for irrigation, there seems to be no in between, it is either the multi row large number of heads individually contolled, which does give you great control over water useage, and helps you achieve firm conditions in the right hands, but it is a lot of money, probably too much money, or you have those that advocate the double row irrigate what you can, and in the right hands you can have firm conditions but you will have turf loss and you will be doing a lot of hand watering. Looking at pictures of The Hotchkin Course you would think this type of system is just fine and browned out turf is just fine, but alas it is a hard sell. Go to Huntingdon Valley and you have a guy that collects the old two speed heads and has a great view on how to irrigate a course using this old technology and how can you argue with his success. He's right, but he's unique too. You just don't have a Scott Anderson at every club. The costs of the irrigation systems and the multi row, large number of heads, individual control approach is hard for me to feel good about because of costs, but I do beleive it sets the stage for having great turf conditions, that give firm conditions and save water.