Gravel greens are common in outback golf courses in Australia, as are artificial grass tee pads. Some courses use portable fairways, meaning you carry a piece of artificial grass about a foot square which you place under your ball.
For a more extreme example try doing an image search for “Coober Pedy Golf Course”. Being Australia, there is a prominent ironic “Keep off the grass” sign in many images.
There are some golf courses in outback Australia with proper grass fairways, and the kangaroos love them.
One of the selling points of disc golf, (not called frisbee golf because frisbee is trademarked) is that the courses don’t require the upkeep that ball golf courses require. But that didn’t stop you USAnians from building meticulously landscaped disc golf courses that probably use as much water as a ball golf course.
Pedant the second: water usage is measured in cubic meters aka kiloliters. So 1.45 million cubic meters of water, which can be simplified to 1.45 Mm³ (megameters cubed)
Unless they’ve taken the Coober Pedy method. You carry a piece of artificial turf with you. When you get to your ball, you put the turf under the ball. Unless you’ve landed in a “sand trap”. Then: no turf for you!
Also: the “green” is oiled and compressed sand, and doesn’t use turf.
When I left LA, the new generations of artificial grass were becoming more popular. Honestly, they’re really good. A few are good enough that you have to walk up and touch them to be sure.
Personally, I’d take a rock garden and native bushes over that, but if someone really wants a lawn, that is a good option, IMHO.
My dad and his little brother grew up in an agricultural suburb east of Los Angeles. For fun, they sped down a rough local hill on bicycles, often landing in clumps of cacti.
Then that hill was cleared, re-planted, and turned into a golf course… which sucks-up water to stay green. And bikes aren’t allowed. Progress? Hah!
I’ve a brutal childhood memory of visiting family friends in a cactus zone, with me falling into a patch of opuntia and Mom using tweezers to clear me. Ouch. 8-(
We live in southern Ontario, so not a desert (yet) and I never water my required-by-bylaw lawn. The miscellaneous grass types and clover just turn yellow and go into a stasis of sorts until the next rainfall. The water we save has infinitely better uses elsewhere.
