Using six months of data gleaned from GPS tracking units that were issued to golfers at the North Las Vegas, Nev. course, almost 129,000 sq. ft. of grass that was found to be in areas with little or no play is being ripped out and replaced with fine-grain rock and desert landscaping. The project will cut Aliante’s water use by more than 7 million gallons a year and make it eligible for over $208,000 in rebates from the Southern Nevada Water Authority. A second project to cut out another 100,000 sq. ft. of turf is now being planned.
Aliante Golf Club is the latest property in the Las Vegas (Nev.) valley to tear out golf course turf and cut its water use with the help of some space-age technology, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
About six months ago, the Review-Journal reported, staff members from the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) issued GPS tracking units to golfers at the city-owned course in North Las Vegas, to help identify areas that don’t see any cart traffic or play.
“They were here for several days. They did a lot of tracking, hundreds of rounds,” said Aliante’s General Manager, Bill Rowden. “It just showed areas that golf carts were really not going to.”
That data is now being used to guide the first big turf-conversion project at the 18-hole course, the Review-Journal reported. Almost 129,000 sq. ft. of grass is being ripped out and replaced with fine-grain rock and desert landscaping, cutting the property’s water use by more than 7 million gallons a year.
The course is also eligible for more than $208,000 in rebates from the authority’s Water Smart Landscapes program, which pays residents and businesses to replace their grass with desert plants, the Review-Journal reported.
The rebate money will be used for golf course maintenance and operations, Sandy Lopez, a spokeswoman for North Las Vegas told the Review-Journal.
All of the work should be finished before June ends, Rowden said, and plans are already being made for the next conversion project.
“To keep all this green year-round when you really don’t have to? We’re really glad that we’ve got the ability to do this to save for the community,” he said.
Aliante is the latest of several courses to undergo the water authority’s GPS treatment, the Review-Journal reported.
“In some cases we’ve used it on golf courses where they’ve already done those [conversion] projects to kind of validate [whether they made] good choices,” said Doug Bennett, an SNWA conservation manager. “The golf industry has been very responsible and responsive.”
Since the authority launched its turf-rebate program 20 years ago, the Review-Journal reported, golf courses valleywide have eliminated more than 900 acres of grass, saving more than 2 billion gallons of water annually.
Most of Aliante’s targeted turf is at the back of the driving range and around the tee boxes on the ninth and 18th holes, the Review-Journal reported.
“It’s about a 350-yard driving range. Not too many people hit it that far, so we’ve got some easy turf to remove out here,” Rowden said. “It doesn’t really affect play. It doesn’t affect the aesthetics. The golfer really doesn’t see a change.”
The next round of turf removal, slated for next year, will be more delicate, Rowden added. The Aliante staff has already begun to identify small strips and isolated pockets of grass that could be eliminated. The GPS data is helping with that process as well, and Rowden is hoping to cut out another 100,000 square feet of turf if he can.
“Two thousand square feet here and there, that adds up,” he said.
When North Las Vegas opened Aliante Golf Club in 2004, the Review-Journal reported, the Colorado River was already four years into a record drought that has not subsided. The Las Vegas Valley relies on the river for about 90 percent of its water supply, so as the drought deepened the SWNA adopted a slate of restrictions aimed at cutting consumption, including strict water budgets for golf courses.
Cutting water use is especially important for the Aliante operation, Rowden said, because it does not have access to groundwater wells or reclaimed sewer water like other valley courses. Instead, it has to irrigate with treated drinking water. “It’s a little more pricey,” Rowden said.
The ongoing conversion project at the course certainly didn’t disrupt golfer Pat McGonagle’s routine on a recent day at Aliante, the Review-Journal reported. From his spot on the practice tee, the Aliante regular could see the workers shoveling decomposed granite in the distance, but he said the men in hard hats were safely outside the range of his driver.
Elite Golf Management has made a lot of improvements since the city hired it to run the course in 2017, McGonagle said. Taking out some turf is the right thing to do, he said, and he trusts Elite to do it without ruining the place.
“When you live in Las Vegas, you have to conserve,” McGonagle said.
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