Golf’s Water Supply Opinions Matter

FOLLOWING A RECENT PANEL PRESENTATION that was about something other than water, a golf administrator from a neighboring state asked me whether my optimism about the game’s long-term viability in Southern California was genuine, considering the multiplicity of challenges the game faces with respect to water, both in terms of access and cost.

Of course, he was referring to the diminishing Colorado River system supply, the impasse between the Upper and Lower Basin States in renegotiating a fast dwindling Colorado River supply, water rights per the so-called Law of the River, groundwater basin overdraft, the state’s desire to buttress the Delta supply against the ever-present threat of seismic catastrophe and society’s expanding thirst for water throughout the Southwest.

I paused before responding. It occurred to me that if this highly informed golf administrator had these thoughts, then perhaps many others in the golf community also question whether those of us who fancy ourselves part of the game’s leadership wear rose-colored glasses when we boast about the game’s post-pandemic record participation levels, despite all the very real problems we know it faces with respect to water.

I shared that the SCGA very much understands those challenges, but there is cause for optimism, nonetheless. Case in point: California’s 2025 legislative session yielded SB 72 (Caballero; D-Merced), what many have termed a breakthrough in managing the state’s water supply portfolio beyond the crises and exigencies of the moment by creating, for the first time in the state’s history, something resembling a long-term plan to supply the water necessary to sustain the fifth-largest economy in the world for the rest of the century.

Translation: Putting an actual numerical target in the state’s master “Water Plan.”

According to the University of California research cited as the predicate for the legislation by the bill’s sponsor, California Municipal Utilities Association, California should anticipate that aridification will lead to the loss of up to nine million acre-feet or 10-20 percent of current water supply by 2050.

Conservation is arguably the best tool in California’s supply toolbox, but as SB 72 makes clear, it cannot be the only tool if the state hopes to meet its needs over the course of the next couple of generations. The state is going to have to continue to up its game in stormwater capture, aquifer recharge, potable and non-potable reuse and desalination where economically and environmentally appropriate.

But in a state that has established 81 targets, otherwise known as legislative/regulatory mandates, to decarbonize its economy, it makes long overdue sense to create a target for the compound that is literally indispensable to human life, health and safety — a north star to guide everything the state’s decision-makers do to secure a stable supply of water for its residents, businesses and the non-human species equally dependent on water for their existence. That’s why SB 72 contains guarantees that none of that additional nine million acre-feet it targets will come from additional draws on the Sacramento Delta.

But here’s the catch: There’s always a catch. New infrastructure requires investment, otherwise known as taxes and fees. That is why the sponsors of the legislation sought golf’s support for the “California Water for All” campaign. It’s one thing for a water wholesaler, water retailer or public utility to advocate for investment; it’s quite another for a sector that will have to absorb at least some of those costs to advocate for it. But life is about choices, and when it comes to water, the choice for golf is about whether it is better to have access to water at a higher price or better to have limited or perhaps no access at a lower price.

If only it were different, but sadly, it is not. Thus, the California golf community, through the organization it created to speak with one voice in Sacramento, the California Alliance for Golf (CAG), used that voice to support SB 72 and in the process solidified the game’s already solid relationships with the state’s water providers and the agencies that regulate them.

The golf administrator grinned at my lengthy response, but then explained that I had buried the lede. SB 72 becoming law shouldn’t be the focal point of an answer to a question about golf’s long-term viability in California, but rather the simple fact that the golf community’s opinion would carry any weight at all in Sacramento was encouragement enough.

Our colleague was correct. The golf industry has come a long way over the last decade — from invisibility and irrelevance to a sector whose opinions matter.

“It’s one thing for a water wholesaler, water retailer or public utility to advocate for investment; it’s quite another for a sector that will have to absorb at least some of those costs to advocate for it.”