Sun City West’s environmental services manager reported progress on irrigation and turf-reduction projects that officials say will reduce water use and change course maintenance practices.

Todd Patty told the Golf Committee on Sept. 11 that the Aqua Mesa irrigation work finished ahead of schedule: the irrigation portion was completed April 25 and the desert landscape portion finished Aug. 22; he said the course began watering with the new system on Aug. 11. “Now we're watering the golf course through ET management,” Patty said, referring to evapotranspiration-based scheduling.

Patty said the project removed 18 acres of turf and, using a 3.1 acre-feet-per-acre conversion, estimated “an annual water savings of about 50 to 55 acre feet.” He said the project included planting more than 150 trees and roughly 2,000 plants; turf and sod work also used material onsite rather than hauling it off-course.

Patty described a trial of a newer turf variety, Tahoma 31 (a TifTuf/bermuda-type cultivar), installed on selected tees and fairways. He said Tahoma 31 “requires less water,” can green up earlier in spring and go dormant later in fall, and that the division will test how the new turf tolerates cart traffic without overseeding.

He reported that certain fairway areas required remediation—one tee slope had 175 tons of material removed and replaced with new sod—and that the crew has applied three herbicide treatments to control goosegrass during establishment.

On scheduling, Patty said Stardust, Echo Mesa, Trowbridge and Grandview are slated to close for overseeding, with Stardust and Grandview closing on Sept. 25; he said all four were scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, Oct. 21, weather permitting. He advised that Echo Mesa and Grandview would offer limited “free drop out of the desert” areas for carts for at least a year and asked members to keep carts out of desert areas as requested.

Committee members raised a separate item about identifying newly planted or protected trees so they can be established as local no-play zones; staff said they will mark affected trees and pursue a rule change so play relief is consistently applied.

Patty noted course irrigation improvements have improved distribution uniformity and green-up, and the committee praised visible results at Grandview and Echo Mesa. The report concluded with planned upcoming work including car-path slurry sealing at Echo Mesa and continued sod/grow-in monitoring.