The project at Willowcreek GC and Willowbrook GC, which is slated to be carried out in 2017, will remove 75 acres of turf on the perimeter of the golf courses, at a total cost of $1.4 million. A similar project will be carried out this year along the perimeter of the city-owned Lakes East Golf Course, where 10 acres of turf will be removed.
A reduction in the turf surface of the perimeter at the Willowcreek and Willowbrook golf courses in Sun City, Ariz., one of several water system improvements to Recreation Centers of Sun City (RCSC) courses, is expected to save over 100 million gallons of water a year, the Sun City-based Your West Valley News reported.
The project, slated to be carried out in 2017, will result in the removal of 75 acres of turf at the two courses, according to RCSC Communication and Marketing Coordinator Joelyn Higgins.
The work at Willowbrook will cost $564,175. The work at Willowcreek will cost $825,995, or a total of $1,390,170 to reduce the perimeter turf at the two courses, News reported.
A similar but smaller project will be carried out this year along the perimeter at Lakes East Golf Course, where 10 acres of turf will be removed. The Lakes East work is part of a series of improvements that also includes irrigation-system upgrades costing a combined $2,113,065, according to the long-range capital plan scheduled to be voted on by the RCSC board of directors at its regular monthly business meeting March 31. In both cases, the turf will be replaced with “low-growing, “colorful” desert landscape, News reported.
The change will not only enhance the views from neighboring properties but cut landscape-maintenance costs along with water use, said RCSC board of directors President Dan Schroeder.
Other water-saving projects on the long-range spending blueprint include:
• An irrigation-pump station upgrade and lake renovation at Willowbrook in 2016 at a cost of $565,400
• Continuing work on irrigation-system pump stations at both Willowbook and Willowcreek courses, and reconstruction of irrigation lakes on both courses in 2017. The irrigation work is part of a larger project that also includes reconstruction of greens 5, 7, 9 and 18 at Willowcreek. The total cost for all items in this project is $5,334,000, News reported.
RCSC officials said the expenses are well worth the long-term savings in terms of both maintenance and water conservation, News reported.
“Water is a very precious commodity here in the desert,” Schroeder said. “The proposed plans for the Willow courses alone would sustain the annual water needs of 2,300 individuals.”
Turf-perimeter reduction is not a new strategy. In Sun City West, the Recreation Centers of Sun City West has carried out a variety of small projects over the past 20 years at golf courses and other landscaped areas, according to RCSCW General Services Officer Katy O’Grady. For example, at RH Johnson Library, small areas of turf were taken out and replaced with artificial grass, News reported.
“We always look for opportunities to save water and are now pursuing it as more of an organized long-range plan,” O’Grady said. “Last year, we brought in a golf course architect who came up with a turf-reduction plan for Echo Mesa (Golf Course). We don’t have a time frame for implementing it, but the plan is in hand, and at some point we likely will (complete it).”
In Sun City, Higgins said the irrigation pump-station work is taking place over a period of two years so the course has a continuous source of water, News reported.
RCSC plans golf course improvements outside the realm of saving water as well. They include:
• The replacement of the South Golf Course pro shop and expansion of golf-car storage facilities, a project long-sought by golfers there, is scheduled next year at a cost of $1,600,000; and
• Replacing golf-maintenance buildings at three courses to be determined; one per year in each of the following years: 2018, 2019 and 2020 at a cost of $750,000 apiece.
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