In Receiving MWD’s One Water Award, El Caballero CC Illustrates How Courses Can Save Water and Improve Quality of Play at the Same Time

“Civilization has been a permanent dialogue between human beings and water.”

That’s how the Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD) Gary Tilkian began his introduction of Phil Lopez, GM of El Caballero CC of Tarzana, before presenting Lopez with MWD’s One Water Award on May 2.El Cab was one of four award recipients, each honored for innovative water-saving measures at their respective facilities. Tilkian, a senior resource specialist at the water district, lauded El Cab’s reduction in water usage to the tune of 28 million gallons saved in 2023 alone.

If humans and water have been in permanent dialogue, such is certainly true of golf and water. Credit Phil Lopez for going beyond dialogue and into action.

According to Lopez, the dialogue at El Cab a few years ago was all about addressing a salient fact: “We knew we were using a lot of water by overseeding the golf course every year and that that was not sustainable long term.”

Phil Lopez (left) receives one water award from MWD board member, Miguel Angel.

The reason was obvious: “Droughts are a reality in Southern California and for us to be able to survive that in the future, we’ve got to use less water. We had to have a product that can use less water and one that can survive a severe drought.” The proposed product was a hybrid Bermudagrass that promised to reduce water usage by 30 percent. That sounded great but it was only possible by way of a total turf conversion from El Cab’s incumbent rye. That meant convincing the club membership to spend $9 million and to close the course for nine months.

A tall order but Lopez was armed with strong talking points. The cost would be offset by about $200,000, thanks to MWD’s Water Savings Incentive Program (WISP). Plus, he was dealing with a membership that is predisposed to community service. “Philanthropy is literally in the DNA of El Caballero,” Lopez explains. “A charitable mindset is a requirement for membership. So this is a group of people willing to do the right thing for their community. And the right thing in the context of water in Los Angeles is to use less of it.”

MULTIPLE BENEFITS

A turf conversion also meant the course would no longer close for weeks at a time during the pre-winter overseeding season. And it meant a far superior turf during the summer. The poor condition of rye during the summer months had long been a topic of conversation at El Cab. “But when I got here, I looked at it more from the sustainability aspect. I said, ‘Folks, the reason we’re in this boat and have such poor conditions in the summer is not because of the summer. It’s because of what we do in the winter. It’s because we keep overseeding the golf course in the winter.’”

To Lopez, having freshly endured severe summer drought water restrictions, it was a matter of survivability and sustainability of the club. In that sense, his sense of responsibility extended to include the country club’s employees. “We have staff members who have been here 30, 40, even 50 years. These people feed their families with their job at El Cab. The more successful we are, the more successful they are.”

In addition to survivability and water savings, Lopez was confidently able to promise a dramatically better golf course. His thinking was, as long as they were replacing the grass, why not make some changes to the course to modernize it, make it more playable and more appealing to a range of skill levels? Sure, why not? Except for one important factor: The course itself was a venerable piece of history. Do you monkey with a layout designed by one of golf’s most iconic architects, Robert Trent Jones Sr.?

The answer was yes, but within reason — and with none other than Rees Jones, the senior Jones’ son, guiding the project.

“We didn’t want to blow it up,” explains Lopez. “We wanted to restore and modernize it. It came down to the fact that Rees understood the property, his dad’s philosophy and the values of the membership.”

A POSITIVE MESSAGE

In the process of replacing the turf, deep bunkers were shallowed, greens were resloped to be more playable for the average golfer and several hundred trees were removed to open up views.

At the same time, rough turf was replaced with decomposed granite peppered with drought-resistant olive trees. “We didn’t take the teeth out of the place,” says Lopez, “but if you miss a green it’s not an automatic double bogey.”

Work began in February 2021. Exactly nine months later, on schedule and on budget, the first golfers teed off on the new version of venerable El Caballero to nothing but rave reviews.

For Lopez, winning the One Water Award was satisfying but he’s equally proud to exemplify what is possible for other courses. “A lot of clubs in L.A. have already done this but I think it’s good we were highlighted, because it brings more attention to sustainability. Other facilities can perhaps look to us as a model. The more we tell the story about golf being a sustainable user of water by doing things like we did, that’s a positive message for the industry and the game.”

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