With watering restrictions in place and the prospect of much steeper water bills, the resort community in Patterson, Calif., will close the course designed in 1988 by Gene Sarazen and Jack Nicklaus. Diablo Grande’s Ranch Course will continue to operate.
The severe drought plaguing central California will force Diablo Grande Golf & Country Club in Patterson, Calif., to close its famed Legends golf course, which is viewed as one of the most prestigious in the area, The Modesto (Calif.) Bee reported.
Diablo Grande’s less-esteemed Ranch Course, which is more visible at the luxury community’s gateway, will continue to welcome golfers, the Bee reported.
Both courses are managed by Troon Golf for Laurus Corp., which owns the Diablo Grande community.
Restrictions on water use, included designated lawn-watering days, were recently slapped on the resort community’s 437 homes, the Bee reported. Residents of the community also face the prospect of steeper bills, as Diablo Grande’s water district scrambles to buy relatively small amounts of water at an astronomical price.
Mike Dunlop, PGA, Diablo Grande’s General Manager/Director of Golf, told television station KTXL Fox 40 that “The department of water resources has given us a zero allocation of water.”
“We’re just hoping we get rain, and that we can keep things going for as long as we can,” Dunlop said.
On March 21, management at Diablo Grande notified neighbors that watering has stopped at the Legends course, although some tournaments and booked rounds will continue for a few weeks, the Bee reported. Some were not surprised at the bad news about the Legends course, it was noted.
“We all need to suck it up,” said Bill Lindley. “I’d much rather they cut off water to a golf course and give it to a farmer.”
The 18-hole Legends course, designed by golf luminaries Jack Nicklaus and Gene Sarazen, opened in 1998 and has been one of the big draws for the community in the dramatic hills west of Patterson, earning high praise from Golf Digest and discriminating golfers alike, the Bee reported.
“Each course has great qualities,” Philip Cybert, Chief Executive Officer of Laurus Corp., told the Bee. As the “gateway” to the community, neighbors urged Laurus Corp. to keep the Ranch course open, Cybert added.
“All of the homes actually are on the Ranch side,” Dunlop said in his comments to KXLT Fox 40. “So the decision was made to keep the water sheds, the views, everything on the Ranch golf course appealing to the homeowners.”
Diablo Grande will allow tournaments and golf rounds already booked at the Legends course to continue until its links degrade and are no longer playable—probably by April or May, the Bee reported. After that, booked tournaments can move to the Ranch course, which could get congested on weekends, but greens fees are not expected to rise.
Thousands of farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been told to expect no irrigation water this year from the two government-run networks of reservoirs and canals: the State Water Project and the federal government’s Central Valley Project, the Bee reported. The former is a source for the Kern County Water Agency, which sells water to Diablo Grande’s public utility, the Western Hills Water District.
Diablo Grande’s homes, vineyard and golf courses typically use 1,200 acre-feet of water each year, but will try to get by with one-third that amount in 2014—and some feel fortunate to get that much, the Bee reported.
Scared by limited availability in 2008 and 2009, the Western Hills Water District negotiated for the right to bank up to 500 acre-feet for use in dry years, and has set aside 2,000 acre-feet since, the Bee reported. Faced with no water from its usual source this year, the Western Hills board last month decided to purchase 400 of the 2,000 banked acre-feet, at a premium price.
The board might not know the exact cost for a few weeks, but expects to pay from $1,300 to $2,500 per acre-foot, the Bee reported. By comparison, the city of Modesto last year paid about $10 an acre-foot for surface water treated by the Modesto Irrigation District.
David Hobbs, Western Hills’ assistant general counsel, told the Bee that once the price is known, the board will initiate a rate hike. Under California law, such proposals go through if less than half of a utility’s customers protest.
Western Hills’ contract obligates it to pay Kern County Water Agency the same amount whether it receives water or not, and the water district has been hit with a bill for $875,000, the Bee reported. The undetermined price for the banked 400 acre-feet will come on top of that.
While all nine cities in California’s Stanislaus County rely to some degree on pumped well water, the Bee reported, Diablo Grande has no access to groundwater. Terms of a lawsuit settlement say Western Hills can only use the nearby Marshall Davis well if a catastrophe disables canals and pumps from its California Aqueduct source, such as an earthquake.
In a typical year, Diablo Grande’s vineyard and two golf courses use 78 percent of the community’s water, the Bee reported. This year, about 200 acre-feet will go to homes, and the Ranch course, which normally uses 500 acre-feet, will have to make do with 200 acre-feet.
“We’re trying to have a balanced approach and make sure the community is taken care of,” Cybert told the Bee.
“The good news is we’ve gone through a massive recession and Diablo Grande is a very viable community,” he added.
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