This California muni saved millions in irrigation — and others are following suit

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Three years ago, Matteo Serena barely knew the difference between a beaker and a bunker. Today, the native of Italy could be the most crucial person to ever visit your golf grounds.

Sporting a history of academia and turfgrass research on his C.V., Southern California-based Serena has fast risen to the forefront of the game’s water conservation efforts as the senior manager of irrigation research and services for the USGA.

His ascent fueled by intellect, outreach and an inherent European charm (“golf’a”), Serena’s drop-by-drop efforts have achieved exacting results across water-starved SoCal and beyond. At one popular public property in particular, his research and methodology have produced a scorecard filled with cost savings and sustainability.

Turf and volley

The original 18-hole North Course at public Los Serranos Golf Club in Chino Hills, Calif., opened in 1925, followed by the South Course in 1964. Its combined 300 irrigated acres support a robust tee sheet; over the past year, more than 120,000 rounds have been played across the property’s 36 holes.

Shortly after being hired by the USGA in 2022, Serena sought regional public courses where he could provide hands-on, free-of-charge application of the USGA’s 15/30/45 initiative, a $30 million investment designed to help courses decrease water usage by up to 45 percent across a 15-year window. In 2025, the USGA introduced its Water Conservation Playbook, a comprehensive effort to provide courses with the latest tools and techniques to more effectively manage water utilization.

“I started looking for courses with deferred maintenance,” recalled Serena, “and one of the earliest things we identified was how golf courses could do better with irrigation.”

What Serena was seeking were not the most lavish or lauded properties, but rather places where a little TLC could go a long way.

“The USGA works with many very nice properties with sizable budgets where we host championships,” Serena said. “For this project, I wanted to do something with a local, public course to perhaps prove that a facility with fewer resources can do some of this irrigation work and show real improvements.”

Serena zeroed in on the Chino Hills facility formally titled “Jack Kramer’s Los Serranos GC.” Kramer was a three-time Grand Slam tennis singles champion in the 1940s who joined Los Serranos’ ownership group in 1953; eight years later, Kramer became sole proprietor, and the grounds have held the surname ever since. Familial in vibe, Los Serranos is one of 14 facilities managed by JC Golf, based in San Mateo, Calif.

“This is one of the properties we take the most pride in having in our portfolio,” said Jon Christenson, corporate director of golf maintenance for JC Golf. “We love the fact that the Kramer family just wants to keep making things better.”

When opportunity knocked in the form of Serena, Christenson was fast to answer.

“A lot of superintendents at public golf courses don’t necessarily have the time or the crews to do this type of work,” said Christenson. “So, when Matteo first contacted us about this project and suggested that Los Serranos be included, I was on board.”

Given the immense annual round count, his staff was, too.

“There are plenty of other courses that Matteo could have picked to work with,” said Peter Lopez, superintendent at Los Serranos for the past decade. “We’re just thankful that we were the one.”

Before gratitude, there was research, by way of the Catch Can Test.

“The test is basically placing (measuring) cups or plastic containers on a predetermined area,” Serena said. “For, say, a green, we’ll use 30-60 cups, and space them evenly. Then we run the sprinklers, and measure how much water is collected in the cups and do an analysis to determine the uniformity of the irrigation and see if it’s consistent across the surface.”

For the initial test at Los Serranos, Serena and grounds staff performed the Catch Can with 10 heads per test on the club’s 19th hole (used as a backup for regular play, and for instruction), along with No. 1 fairways of the North and South.

The results? Well, they proved Catch Can’t.

“We measure from 0-1.0, and if the system has 80 percent, or 0.8 uniformity, then it’s performing well,” said Serena. “When I first visited Los Serranos, the results were about 0.6 or less of uniformity, which classifies as poor. A lot of the sprinklers were leaking or broken or not properly rotating. My recommendation was that they needed to perform maintenance on those heads.”

Los Serranos followed Serena’s recommendation and hired an irrigation auditor, who checked every irrigation head across the property.

Serena repeated the test after this maintenance — and the uniformity rose to about 0.75.

After Serena and the USGA Green Section provided 30 free sprinkler heads (valued at about $275 a piece), the ensuing test showed remarkable improvement: Over .80 uniformity.

“Not too bad for a 25-year-old irrigation system,” Serena said with a smile.

For Los Serranos, uniformity proved synonymous with both cost efficiency and water efficiency. Instead of a multimillion-dollar total irrigation revamp, the club invested around $25,000 in new hardware.

“The icing on the cake was when we started replacing heads and saw the final results — Matteo proved that the upgrades improved our efficiency,” said Lopez. “Most of the areas that we worked on together have improved, even after a tough, dry summer where we’re trying to conserve as much water as possible.”

The faucet cost

While Serena’s USGA work takes him around the country, SoCal remains his base.

To wit: Research from multiple University of California think tanks has broadly assessed that the American West is currently experiencing its highest level of aridity in 1,200 years; more specific to the Golden State, UC studies have concluded that, amid four decades of rising average temperatures, California can expect to experience water loss of upwards of 20 percent by 2050.

Between a drying Colorado River basin, fickle Sierra Nevada snowpacks, depleted aquifers and rising costs, water is hardly a dry topic in California.

“It always comes back to the same story: We are on the trajectory to have less water available in California and, at the same time, we are estimating that we will have a larger population,” said Kevin Fitzgerald, director of public affairs for the Southern California Golf Association. “And the challenges are very different in California than most parts of the country, because we have so many different water suppliers.”

In the end, all turf, like all water, becomes local.

“The water situation is very worrisome,” said Christenson. “Even though we are on reclaimed water at Los Serranos, and even as the technology gets better with what we can do with reclaimed water, it becomes increasingly important that we make the best use of our water.”

A reclaimed source may be an asset but isn’t the ultimate answer.

“Looking to the future is looking at water availability,” Christenson said. “We are starting to see that the reclaimed (water) agencies are now finding more (non-golf) uses for this water, whether that’s for street medians, parks or recharging basins.”

Echoed Lopez, “It’s not easy. With 36 holes and 3,600 sprinklers, there’s a lot of cost, and nothing is getting cheaper.”

While challenges (and operating costs) abound, SoCal’s proactive roster of Golf & Water Task Forces — from Los Angeles to San Diego County to the Coachella Valley — is on the hunt for savings and solutions.

At the center of such critical dialogue? A guy whose trunk sports a USGA tool kit in lieu of a box of Titleists.

“I’ve learned so much from Matteo — he’s been such an asset for golf, particularly in our region,” said Fitzgerald. “He’s been a key part of the Golf & Water Task Forces that we have, our go-to expert. The water districts also really appreciate having his expertise when we’re going through ways to work with these water providers, as well as the golf community.”

Real-world results

It’s late morning on a weekday as summer nears its close at Los Serranos, and the parking lot is full.

Serena is back on property, and though he’s been learning the game during his three years with the USGA, his cart carries not clubs but a case of esoteric tools of his trade: the USGA’s proprietary Moisture Meter; water pressure gauge; Stimpmeter and patented GS3 ball; a case of Catch Can containers.

After two decades of academic and research efforts in water conservation at the University of Padua in his home country and New Mexico State and UC-Riverside in the U.S., Serena takes great pleasure in real-world applications, as witness the smile beneath his bucket hat.

“I see this USGA work as an opportunity to do something more,” said Serena. “This job is about trying to make a difference in the real world. And it’s wonderful out here — the open air, natural light. I so enjoy the practicality of what we’re doing, making changes and improvements.”

Golf carts roll by continuously, the riders unaware that the bucket-hatted man’s outreach and expertise saved their courses an $8 million investment in irrigation overhaul. 

“Maybe Matteo didn’t get into this because of a passion for golf,” said Fitzgerald, “but because of his passion to help communities use their water to the greatest extent possible.”

A view from the ground’s kikuyugrass underlines the sentiment.

“From the first Catch Can Test until today, he’s always totally ready to go, with all his tools and materials,” said Lopez of Serena. “We’ve helped him, but at the same time he’s guiding us, because we’ve never done this before.”

Boots on the ground are essential.

“What’s great about what he’s doing out on the course is that the data from sprinkler manufacturers is mostly collected in a closed room,” said Christenson. “But being out here in the field — with 30-to-100-year-old pipes in the ground, 25-to-30-year-old sprinkler heads — that’s different. What people can glean from his work is real-world information.”

Spinning off these results at Los Serranos, JC Golf is implementing what might be dubbed a “Matteo Domino.” 

“I love the fact that he’s looking at it from a course maintenance standpoint, not necessarily a new construction standpoint,” said Christenson. “This maintenance aspect of the irrigation system has really shocked me. We’re now implementing this system at a couple of our other golf courses, based on Matteo’s work here at Los Serranos.”

Placing 16 Catch Cans across the 19th hole fairway, sprinklers spritzing his shirt and slacks, Serena relishes the rudimentary nature of the test. No remote sensors, no AI, no Wi-Fi, no plugs, no wires.

Anybody can do it, which is the point.

“This process, this test, it’s not what you might call ‘sexy’ work, but that’s why it’s very underutilized,” said Serena. “Part of my job is finding this low-hanging fruit and letting people know that, yes, it takes some time — but just look at all the positives you can get from it.”

An assessment of the sprinklers’ uniformity and consistency concluded, Serena eyes the surrounds, his purview far beyond the adjacent home hole and the struggles of those seeking to break 80 or 100.

“Out here, I see the retirees in the early morning, groups of kids in the afternoon, leagues, all kinds of people,” he concluded. “This game is for everybody. This is community. And when a golf course can conserve water, that same water can be used for something else in the community.”