Oakmont Country Club removes 26 acres of turf for drought-tolerant landscaping

About 26 acres of lush green turf at Oakmont Country Club’s golf course has been swapped with new landscaping made of a sand-and-rock mixture planted with California native, drought-tolerant plants as part a major water-conservation project.

That will translate to about a 25% annual reduction in water consumption for the 93-year-old club, according to the club’s management, as state mandates continue to pressure cities to reduce usage in the face of an ongoing drought.

Most of the sacrificed lawn was part of the rough and not typically where a golf ball would land — for most players.

“The distance between the tee box and where the ball typically lands — all that underneath that air time — does not need to be grass,” said Sunder Rumani, a member of Oakmont’s board of directors. “You’re not bowling, so you don’t need to touch the ground all the way.”

However, club member Jack Hudes said he still has to try to drive the ball out of the new natural landscaping.

“If you stink like I do, you take some bad shots … I’m not supposed to, but it happens. It’s my fault, not the course’s fault,” he said jokingly.

Hudes and other golfers from the club were kept in the loop from the time management started kicking the idea around of installing the new landscaping last July. The board of directors ultimately voted on making the change to the 105-acre course.

Town hall meetings were held and, while Rumani acknowledges there was some doubt expressed by club-goers, members like Hudes say the course’s grounds look more appealing now and he appreciates the proactive effort.

“The public’s perception of golf courses, if they would continue to use water the way they have been, is going to be very poor,” Hudes said. “I think we were just ahead of the game, and I’m very proud that we are.”

Some holes on Glendale’s only 18-hole golf course are covered more by the new landscaping than others.

Oakmont first experimented with turf replacement back in 2008 when it substituted 6 acres of grass, said Scott Heyn, the club’s general manager.

It cost Oakmont about $2.3 million for the recent landscaping change and as many as three holes at a time were closed off during the four-month installation, he said. While the new material itself took up a portion of the cost, another big chunk was the price to reshape the golf course’s irrigation system, Heyn said.

He said the overall motive for the project was to be a good neighbor in the community by cutting reliance on a local resource not just during the current drought, but for any droughts that lie ahead.

“We’ve preserved some of the past and made it better for the future,” Heyn said.