Layton is Bay Club's senior vice president of golf course operations. He lives in Rancho Santa Fe.
The odds for a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1, but the number of golfers getting on the green to take a shot has steadily increased since the pandemic. The number of Americans playing on a golf course in 2023 will surpass the 26 million mark, which means there will be 1 million more players swinging a stick compared to 2022. In addition to the sport's growing fan base, excess water usage has also become a major concern for golf. Keep heavily populated courses lush and green. In California, an 18-hole course of approximately 110 to 115 acres uses an average of nearly 90 million gallons of water per year.
One leading golf sports and fitness club is doing things differently. Based on the West Coast, Bay Club has a growing number of championship-caliber private golf facilities, including StoneTree Golf Club in Marin County, Boulder Ridge Golf Club in San Jose, Crow Canyon in Danville, and Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe. Masu. Bay Club's operating structure focuses on respecting the environment and surroundings at each of our four golf clubs. This effort includes increased investment in water conservation initiatives launched in 2022 due to the overall analysis of general sustainability efforts coupled with the height of the drought.
For the Bay Club, just one of its golf courses requires approximately 1 million gallons of water to nourish the greens and fairways overnight. However, with the installation of the new Toro Irrigation Weather Observatory, the course will be able to determine watering needs based on scientific evidence rather than human judgment and ensure appropriate water allocation. These weather stations provide detailed information to managers, making it easier to accurately measure irrigation and save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day. Through this technology, which measures wind, solar radiation, humidity, precipitation, and temperature, Bay Club has the ability to accurately calculate how much water to put back into the soil without overwatering. In addition to the best watering method, the water source is equally important. All Bay Club golf courses use recycled, non-potable water. This means that instead of using precious water that could be used in residents' homes, they are using water that would otherwise be thrown away.
Grass on greens and fairways can also be a problem due to improper water intake. The lawn conversion reduced water usage by 30%. The Bay Club replaced 70 acres of turf at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club with warm-season turf and replaced the entire driving range at Boulder Ridge Golf Club, reducing water use by more than 40 percent at the latter location. This proven technology will be introduced to the full course at Boulder Ridge, which is scheduled to be modified in 2025, and to other facilities at Crow Canyon in 2026.
By installing weather stations, turf diversions, and advanced irrigation systems, the Bay Club can program course irrigation in seconds. Each course has 2,000 to 3,000 sprinkler heads, and every second counts. These innovative conservation efforts have helped reduce water consumption by more than 20% year-over-year across the Bay Club course. In addition, as good stewards of the earth's limited resources, we continue to research and pursue new ways to use only what is necessary.
