[Joel_Stewart]

Sign of the times in California.

Press Release from Pasatiempo:

Pasatiempo Golf Club will receive 50% of its "normal" allotment of irrigation water from the City of Santa Cruz until further notice. The tees, greens, approaches and greens surrounds will receive 100% of their needs and we will reduce irrigation to the remainder of the course.

Pasatiempo has already eliminated one-third of its irrigated turf and installed the most efficient irrigation system on the market approximately 4 years ago. We anticipate that the course will be in excellent condition with our irrigation manager and golf course superintendent, Justin Mandon, managing the water and the system on a daily basis.

Your tee shots will roll further and the course will play firm and fast but there will be plenty of turf and we anticipate no turf loss.

You will see the browning and the tanning of the course but we will continue to make Alister MacKenzie proud of his creation.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Sign of the times in California.

Press Release from Pasatiempo:

Pasatiempo Golf Club will receive 50% of its "normal" allotment of irrigation water from the City of Santa Cruz until further notice. The tees, greens, approaches and greens surrounds will receive 100% of their needs and we will reduce irrigation to the remainder of the course.

Pasatiempo has already eliminated one-third of its irrigated turf and installed the most efficient irrigation system on the market approximately 4 years ago. We anticipate that the course will be in excellent condition with our irrigation manager and golf course superintendent, Justin Mandon, managing the water and the system on a daily basis.

Your tee shots will roll further and the course will play firm and fast but there will be plenty of turf and we anticipate no turf loss.

You will see the browning and the tanning of the course so we will continue to make Alister MacKenzie proud of his creation.

Fixed it.

[Chris Mavros]

I played there 2 weeks ago and was wondering how conditions were so lush with the water situation.  Sounds like they know exactly how to deal with this.

[John Cowden]

Back to the Good Doctor's vision, with shades of brown, hardpan 100+ yards off the tee and along the fairways, fast and firm.  Marion and Carlos are pleased.

[Joel_Stewart]

To be fair, the entire county started mandatory rationing today.  They have only 1 reservoir for the entire county.

 

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KGO) -- Mandatory water-rationing begins Thursday in Santa Cruz in the midst of an historic drought. Residents are finding they have a lot to learn with regard to conservation and consequences.

A sign on the Santa Cruz City Hall lawn reads, "In an effort to conserve water, lawn irrigation in this area has been turned off." So if city hall's lawn can go brown, so can every lawn across Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz is known for its surfing. But now instead of cutting back on wave, residents will have to cut back on their water usage.

Mandatory restrictions start May 1 and run through Oct. 31. Many people are already getting creative.
One home has two garbage cans to collect rainwater from the gutters. They're still half full from last week's storm. And another home gets a little help from the creek trickling through the property.

"For all the plants," said the resident. "No using the city water."

Water officials say Santa Cruz has one of the lowest water usage rates in the state. But because there's only one reservoir serving the area, every little drop counts.

[Tom_Doak]

The amazing part is, they are now being allowed 50% of their current water usage, after they cut 50% on an every-year basis a few years back.  So, this summer they are only using 25% of what they once used.

Unfortunately, that math is why many golf courses don't lower water usage voluntarily ... they wait until they are forced to do so, because they are afraid 50% of 50% won't be enough.

What really should happen is for golf courses to come up with a standard number to water 18 holes, with a formula to adjust for the local climate, and make everyone operate from the same basis.  But they are unlikely to do it voluntarily as a golf group, and God forbid that local politicians be allowed to decide the number.  So you wind up with every different course trying to grab the most water they can, to protect themselves from the politics, and from their competitors. 

[James Bennett]

Do we know how much water their allotment is, and what 50% of it is?

I am wondering whether the numbers translate into the less than 100 ML. the 100 ML, the 200 ML or the 300 ML plus range.I expect that they need a little more water for fairways if they have soft grasses compared to Bermuda.

James B

[Bill_McBride]

I wish we could ship some of our recent rain to Northern California, 28" in 36 hours followed by massive flash flooding.   

[Patrick_Mucci]

I see a conflict.

Chris Mavros stated:

"I played there 2 weeks ago and was wondering how conditions were so lush with the water situation. 
Sounds like they know exactly how to deal with this.[/i]

JCowden stated:

"Back to the Good Doctor's vision, with shades of brown, hardpan 100+ yards off the tee and along the fairways, fast and firm."[/i]

The conflict ?

How can a course be "so lush" with "hardpan 100+ yards off the tee and along the fairways, fast and firm"

[Thomas Dai]

Out of interest, have any other existing courses in CA seen similar water restrictions imposed? Indeed, not just courses in CA but anywhere in the US. Just curious.
atb

[Jon Wiggett]

The amazing part is, they are now being allowed 50% of their current water usage, after they cut 50% on an every-year basis a few years back.  So, this summer they are only using 25% of what they once used.

Unfortunately, that math is why many golf courses don't lower water usage voluntarily ... they wait until they are forced to do so, because they are afraid 50% of 50% won't be enough.

What really should happen is for golf courses to come up with a standard number to water 18 holes, with a formula to adjust for the local climate, and make everyone operate from the same basis.  But they are unlikely to do it voluntarily as a golf group, and God forbid that local politicians be allowed to decide the number.  So you wind up with every different course trying to grab the most water they can, to protect themselves from the politics, and from their competitors. 

Tom,

whilst it would be great for the clubs to come up with an 18 hole figure as you say it won't happen and if it did it would be too high. In the end it will be forced on clubs through a drastic reduction in irrigation water. When this happens (and it will) clubs will be faced with one option which will be to raise HOC and reduce watering to greens, approaches and possibly tees. Then they will have to start altering what they mean by quality.

In a few years people will look back and laugh at how sad and boring the trend for super fast, green playing surfaces was. Who knows with slightly slower green speeds maybe the players will start to appreciate the challenge and charm of contoured greens

Jon

[John Cowden]

Mr. Mucci, my comment was more hopeful/aspirational of evolving conditions over the summer.  The course has, however, already taken significant acreage out of irrigation, as Mr. Doak notes, returning large swaths of native grasses amidst sandy hardpan.  There will always be resistance to truly firming up (browning up) the green surrounds; photos of Pebble Garden circa 1963 on another thread show what conditions in that era were like, and which they could be like again, if only....

[William_G]

I read or heard somewhere that a private on the peninsula was spending close to million on water, not sure if that is true?? but it is possible

[Brent Carlson]

With California being such a dry state - why not desalination?  You have to think it's coming soon. 

[John Cowden]

It's been talked about for years on Monterey Bay.  Somebody else will have to address the current status.  Probably nothing money can't fix.  What's a current gallon of Super H2O going for, anyway?

[Mike Benham]

With California being such a dry state - why not desalination?  You have to think it's coming soon. 

Or the lawmakers could spend the bond money that the voters have approved over the past 15 years to build new dams and reservoirs ...


http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

[Jon Wiggett]

Mike,

you are quite right but maybe not so as golf courses can carry on using more water than they need.

Jon

[Mark Provenzano]

I had an early meeting in Santa Cruz this morning, so I though I'd take a few pictures of the Pasa browning-in-progress from the road-accessible areas. There only a bit of auto-correct on a few of these, as the early AM lighting was tricky. So much of Pasatiempo was brown year round already, it's just expanding that from previously restored native out-of-play areas to areas that are in play on occasion.

2 from the left fairway bunker toward the green and 3rd tee. The native area is closest to the camera, the newly brown past that.



2 looking sideways toward what was the start of the fairway.



8 looking back toward the tee; native on the near side of the path, brown past that all the way up the hill.



Another look at 8 from closer to the green



9 from the left rough; again contrast between native and former rough/fairway.



And back down 9

[Mark Provenzano]

A couple on the back 9--here's the 10th from two angles:





11 from the tee. It will probably be fine once it browns out completely in the 100 yard zone, but it looks rough now. (Many of the holes up until 11 have some elevation on the tee, so you don't even notice the first 100 yards are brown. I would have liked a peek at 6-7 tees.)



16 from behind the green. I took a walk up the path after I took this, the view for your second shot on 16 is no less stunning than ever. It's difficult to capture just how amazing this green is.



17 from behind the tee. Unlike its neighbor (11), it seems to be browning rather gracefully.



It's still a work in progress, but by August much of the formerly green turf will look like...most of the rest of California in the summertime. The in-play areas are still immaculate, and Pasa (as always) is a must-play every 2-3 months for me.

[Jason Topp]

What do the members/regulars think of the brown conditions?

[Bill_McBride]

With California being such a dry state - why not desalination?  You have to think it's coming soon. 

Or the lawmakers could spend the bond money that the voters have approved over the past 15 years to build new dams and reservoirs ...


http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

Doesn't Santa Barbara have a mothballed desalination plant that was never put into service.

[JimB]

With California being such a dry state - why not desalination?  You have to think it's coming soon. 

Or the lawmakers could spend the bond money that the voters have approved over the past 15 years to build new dams and reservoirs ...


http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

Doesn't Santa Barbara have a mothballed desalination plant that was never put into service.

http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/system/sources/desalination.asp

[Bill_McBride]

With California being such a dry state - why not desalination?  You have to think it's coming soon. 

Or the lawmakers could spend the bond money that the voters have approved over the past 15 years to build new dams and reservoirs ...


http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

Doesn't Santa Barbara have a mothballed desalination plant that was never put into service.

http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/system/sources/desalination.asp

Thanks Jim, glad my memory still works!

[John Cowden]

To answer your question for myself, Jason, I love it!  It's almost Pinehurst-esque, and the surface geology is naturally very sandy.  As a kid, we used to carve forts from the sandstone formations in the barrancas.  I recall acres of hardpan in the fifties and sixties, and the wonderful undulations of the green approaches were part of the strategy, especially for this short-knocking kid. 

[Stephen Northrup]

I played Pasa this past Sunday morning. Greens and tees were in great shape, fairways beyond 100 or 125 yards from the tees were generally green but running fast. Rough and first 100-125 were brown -- those early parts of fairways were bare in some places bare. Basically it was brown where you probably aren't going to and/or shouldn't hit the ball. Looked to me like the super and staff were doing a great job with what little water they have. And it was a treat to play!

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