Environment friendly golf course: Is it too much to ask for?

Even if you do not play golf, you will enjoy walking on a golf course. The beautiful green landscape, carefully pruned plants and threes will make you feel very fresh and you would think that this is very environment friendly. YOU ARE WRONG!! Golf Courses are not so environment friendly. Creating and maintaining a golf course is very expensive and requires lots of chemical fertilizers and waters which cause serious environmental pollution.

The biggest challenge in developing environment friendly golf courses is that many golfers are not interested in developing environment friendly golf course at the cost of the pristine condition of the golf course which increases its property value. In 2007, Golf Digest conducted a survey on its 350 randomly picked subscribers. Majority of the respondents (75%) said that golf courses around the world should be maintained in the same way to maximize golfers’ enjoyment. Most of the respondents (85%) said that they would sacrifice some level of landscape perfection but 64% agreed to play golf under “less-manicured conditions” that would reduce the use of pesticides. Only 48% agreed to pay higher “green fees” to reduce the use of pesticides.

The golf course at the Hills Country Club in Lakeway, Texas is an ideal example of an environment friendly golf course. Designed by famous golf personality, Jack Nicklaus, a creek and waterfalls run through the golf course. It earned special certification as “cooperative sanctuaries” from Audubon International. The golf club placed nesting boxes for birds to build nests around the course, cultivated wildflowers in havily mowned areas, managed the deer population and took necessary steps to protect the creeks from chemical fertilizers. Now, we need to see more such environment friendly golf courses.

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Statesman.com