Pat Putnam walked into the Red Rock Country Club on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley for another round of golf. It’s an activity he loves—regardless of the amount of natural grass on the course he’s playing that day.
The Phoenix-area resident said he’s aware of the “turf reduction” plans that many golf courses in the Southwest have implemented as a massive multiyear drought continues to plague the region, but he said the trend doesn’t bother him.
“It’s going to keep going the way it’s been going,” Putnam said. “I really don’t think it takes away from the game. For most golfers, I think it’s more about the shape that the greens are in.”
As Southern Nevada continues to deal with dwindling water resources, turf reduction—the replacement of grass spaces with rocks or other desert landscape layouts—has become a common practice around the Valley.
At Red Rock—which is home to a private course and an accompanying public track—more than 300 million gallons of water are used annually to keep the grass on the courses and around the clubhouse healthy.
In Southern Nevada, operators of the more than 50 golf courses in the region are now allowed to use 6.3 acre-feet of water per acre. Beginning in 2024, that number will be lowered to 4 acre-feet.
At Red Rock, the company responsible for managing its golf courses is Pro Turf International, a local company that this year celebrated 30 years in business.
Like other courses in the Southwest, it’s expected that the courses at Red Rock—the Mountain Course is private and the Arroyo Course public—will continue to undergo turf-reduction projects in the future.
“Water has been a big issue for a long time, but I think it’s become an even bigger issue in recent years,” said Mickey Brown, CEO of Pro Turf. “Looking at the levels of Lake Mead, if you look at the satellite imagery, you can really see how water levels have gone down. In recent years, you’ve seen more turf-reduction projects on golf courses in our region.”
There’s still plenty of grass on turf-reduced courses around the tee boxes, on the fairways and, of course, on the greens, but some other areas on local courses have started to look more rocky than grassy.
When they opened, the two courses at Red Rock featured about 330 acres of grass turf. Today, they have about 120 acres, said Jared Bumpus, Pro Turf’s director of maintenance.
Thom Blinkinsop, general manager at Red Rock Country Club, said some golfers complain about a reduction in grass, but the majority don’t seem to mind.
“We’ve actually been reducing turf since about 2002,” Blinkinsop said. “We use GPS tracking to see where golf carts drive on our courses. If we see that carts don’t drive much in a certain area, and there’s turf there, we might end up removing that because that means people aren’t hitting their golf ball in that area much.”
Blinkinsop said he understands that more turf reduction will need to take place at his courses, and at other local courses, as leaders continue to tackle the region’s water shortage problems.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority, a cooperative agency formed in 1991, notes that between 5% and 6% of all water used in the area goes to golf courses. More than 60% is used for residential purposes.
In Southern Nevada, water comes from Lake Mead, the reservoir fed by the Colorado River, which provides water for more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico.
Last month, the Department of the Interior announced that Nevada is set to lose 8% of its water allotment from the river next year.
At Lake Mead, the water level has dropped more than 150 feet since the turn of the century. It now measures at about 1,045 feet above sea level, nearly 180 feet below its capacity.
Patrick Watson, a conservation services administrator with the water authority, noted that as of last November, water from the Colorado River is not allowed to be used at new golf courses built in Las Vegas or unincorporated Clark County.
That essentially prohibited any new course construction here.
Part of that is because water isn’t free. If courses can get away with spending less on water while they continue to offer courses that golfers want to play on, that’s positive for the business side of the operation.
“People who are golfers, I think, understand what we do,” Brown said. “People who are not golfers, they wonder why we have to have all these golf courses in the Valley.”
Putnam, the golfer, said he’s willing to make some sacrifices for the greater good.
“At the end of the day, this is golf, so it’s not the most important thing in the world,” he said. “Being a good citizen means adapting. I’m sure it’s inevitable that turf reduction will continue to take place.”