GOLF IN THE ‘90S : Courses Discover It’s Not Easy Being Green : Drought: Some use reclaimed or well water to irrigate, others simply cut back on usage.

Water conservation seems to bring out the best and the worst in people. Most make an effort to save water and like to think of themselves as part of the solution. But nobody wants to think they’re making a sacrifice while others around them are senselessly splurging.

So if you’ve driven past a local golf course recently and are wondering why its fairways are lush green while your lawn is brown, or why its greens are being drenched by morning showers and your three-minute morning shower barely gets your hair wet, don’t march on your local course with torches and burn down the greenskeeper’s shed.

Truth is, most golf courses don’t waste water. And most of the water being used is of such low quality that you wouldn’t want to bathe in it, drink it or even be close enough to smell it.

At least 12 of Orange County’s 20 18-hole public courses use either reclaimed water or well water to irrigate; others are cutting back on the municipal water they use.

At H.G. Dad Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, water from its own wells is pumped into sprinklers at night, then filters back into the water table and is reused, with only a small percentage lost to evaporation. The process actually filters the water with each cycle.

Still, Anaheim residents who are under surveillance by water “cops,” who are looking for violators of the city’s laws against watering driveways or irrigating landscaping during restricted hours, get upset when they see the sprinklers going at the municipal course.

So the course has instituted an information campaign with a series of signs near the first tee, explaining the process of watering with well water.

“We don’t wash the carts off anymore, though,” said Don Marshall, course operations manager for Anaheim. “We’re making cutbacks where we can, but let’s face it, if you keep cutting down the water, at some point, it ceases to be a golf course.

“I don’t think golf courses are misusing water. If (they are), then you might want to stop golf all together.”

Anaheim Hills Golf Course, Anaheim’s other municipal layout, uses water from the bottom of the city’s reservoir. Marshall says they pay regular city water rates for water no one would drink.

Imperial Golf Course, which has holes in Brea and Fullerton, uses municipal water from both cities. Fullerton has made no restrictions on water use, but the course adheres to a Brea law that restricts watering to every other day. So far, the course appears to be suffering few ill effects.

Imperial superintendent Bill Mague is adding iron supplements to the soil to keep the grass green. The iron additives also prevent the grass from growing as fast as it would if fertilizers were used.

“We’re green,” Mague said, “but just barely. We don’t even water as much as we could, but that’s mostly a (public relations) move. We would have a lot of people who can’t water at home wanting to know how come we can.”

If the drought and water shortages continue for much longer, however, things probably will get worse for courses using municipal water. Mile Square Golf Course in Fountain Valley was hooked up to a reclaimed water system offered by the county six months ago, and both courses at Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club will be irrigated by the same system within a year.

Courses with no well or available system to use reclaimed water could be in serious trouble, however.

“We’ve got a plan set up to (stop watering) the rough and the driving range,” Mague said. “If it gets worse than that, we go to just (watering) hitting areas, then just the tees and greens.

“If the drought goes too much longer, then I don’t see that as being too far off.”

Times Staff Writer John Weyler contributed to this story