Historic Mesa Country Club prepares for drier future

Dec. 5—Mesa Country Club, built in 1948, is considered one of the classic "old school" golf courses of Arizona.

It is enjoyed by pros and novices alike for its Golden Age design by Billy Bell and his son Billy Bell, Jr., noted golf architects whose courses include Torrey Pines outside San Diego.

But heading into a future where drought and climate change could strain water resources and increase costs, the course's liberal use of turf and "antiquated" irrigation system — a patchwork of fixes over the decades — are a liability.

For its 75th anniversary, the private golf club is preparing a $10 million renovation that includes modernizing its irrigation system to help save an estimated 21 million gallons of water a year — or over 10% of its current water use.

Club officials kicked off the project earlier this fall, drawing staff, members, and honorary members like Michael Allan, winner of the 2009 Senior PGA Championship; Steve Jones, 1996 U.S. Open winner; and National Football League Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher.

One of the centerpieces of the upgrades is a new state-of-the-art watering system that enables individual control of each sprinkler head.

With greater control over the sprinklers, workers will be able to apply the exact amount of water needed for small sections of the course without having to water the entire field. The updated irrigation also gives greenskeepers the ability to add sensors to monitor soil moisture levels.

The club will also re-turf the course with two new strains of hybrid Bermuda grass that require less water and might even allow the course to go without overseeding, or planting a winter crop of rye.

As Arizona golf courses face tighter rules on water usage monitoring and reporting, the industry is developing hardier strains of Bermuda grass that can stay green during Valley winters.

"There's going to be a time when a lot more courses don't overseed" in Arizona, said Tim Cloninger, project manager for Staples Golf, which is managing the Mesa renovation.

In addition to the irrigation upgrade, Mesa Country Club is aiming to eliminate 20 to 35 acres of the course's 125 acres of irrigated grass. Crews also will repair irrigation lakes to prevent leakage.

Work on these and numerous other projects will take place during a nine-month course closure beginning in February and lasting until November.

General Manager Nate Mclaughlin said that while the course is closed, other amenities will remain open, like the pro shop, fitness facilities and tennis and pickleball courts.

The closure will be a sacrifice for the roughly 430 members of a private club described as a "players' club" that caters to avid golfers.

But its leaders believe the overhaul will help control costs over the long haul and protect the course against new water limits going into effect in 2025 as well as further reductions in the future.

Andy Staples, principal of the Scottsdale-based Staples Golf, helped create the master plan for the renovation over the past year-and-a-half.

Staples said the No. 1 objective of the renovation is to make the course more water-resilient, but that the master plan also includes considerable work aimed at enhancing playability and "equity" — by which he means a course that is "challenging for the better player, but fun and interesting for the average player."

The playability updates include rebuilds of all the greens to U.S. Golf Association specifications, renovating bunkers and enlarging greens to bring them closer to their original size.

Staples said the renovations will tend toward restoring the intent and style of the course as designed by the Bells.

Jones, the U.S. Open winner, said Mesa Country Club is a fun course with lots of challenging par 3 holes that he could play every day,

The course spans the mesa that the city of Mesa is named for, so Mesa Country Club offers some interesting elevation changes not seen at other courses.

Jones called hole 16 "the hardest, shortest hole in Arizona."

In Arizona, golf courses can be divided into pre- and post-1985, the year when the Arizona Department of Water resources began regulating those that use any amount of groundwater in areas covered by the state's 1980 Groundwater Management Act.

Mesa Country Club overwhelmingly relies on renewable Salt River Project water. But during temporary canal closures, the course briefly pumps groundwater, so it falls under the Groundwater Management Act.

The water allotted to golf courses built after 1985 is based on average irrigation for 90 acres of turf, and the rules had an impact on the style and design of courses subsequently built.

The average pre-1985 course has 105 acres of grass, while the average post-1985 course has 84 acres of grass, according to a presentation by Cloninger.

Mesa Country Club is a quintessential pre-1985 course, with lush, parkland style landscape featuring over 800 mature trees and 125 acres of irrigated grass.

The renovations at Mesa Country Club are designed to preserve this historic character of the course while using less water.

"If you play today, you'll see a lot of areas that really don't need to be irrigated," said Brian Reed, vice president of Mesa Country Club and chair of the long-range planning committee. "They're kind of out of play. They're in between poles and stuff. We're identifying those areas ... that we can easily shut off the water."

In response to a question from a member about what will replace phased out turf, Staples said they are still considering operations, but it will not be "standard desert."

"We have a couple of little unique or maybe even creative ways that we don't have to put in desert landscaping," he said.