Pictures: Golf Masters Green—Ten Environmental Courses

Belas Clube de Campo, Portugal

Photograph by Pedro Teixeira courtesy the Golf Environment Organization

This 18-hole course in drought-prone Portugal is recognized by sustainability experts at the Golf Environment Organization (GEO) as one of the most innovative in water management.

The course and resort at Belas Clube de Campo excel at recycling and reusing irrigation water, explains GEO’s Jonathan Smith.

The 136-acre property offers mountain views, as well as 49 acres of preserved woodland that connects to the surrounding wilderness.

Belas selected turfgrass species—Agrostis stolonifera and a mix of Lolium perenne and Poa pratensis—that help minimize water use because they tolerate the region’s cool and humid winters and warm and windy summers.

Irrigation water is drawn from wells on-site, and the run-off from the course is diverted to lakes on the property, which are tapped as an additional irrigation source for up to 34 percent of its water needs. Groundwater levels are meticulously monitored and have remained stable for the past nine years, according to course officials.

The property uses about 89 million gallons a year for irrigation, and has switched to more precise sprinkler systems to avoid watering areas that don’t need it.

An outstanding environmentally friendly course, explains CEO Smith, will clean water instead of polluting it with pesticides and fertilizers.

Sometimes changing grass species and irrigation patterns means losing the bright green associated with a good course. “One of the biggest challenges is changing golfers’ perceptions … golfers often have an embedded preference for lushness,” Smith says. “I think [turfgrass] color has become directly associated with quality. That’s something that the golf industry needs to detach, because the two aren’t always correlated.”

Over the last five years the GEO has certified 50 courses worldwide, many of them in Europe.

Published April 9, 2011

The Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course, Hong Kong

Photograph by Mike Carey courtesy the Golf Environment Organization

GEO’s Smith gives Hong Kong’s Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course high marks for its education programs and work with the community.

It is the only public golf course in Hong Kong, and among the busiest golf facilities in the world, according to GEO.

All golf course employees are trained in pesticide disposal, efficient water management, habitat maintenance, waste reduction, energy use, and environmental planning. In addition, the club issues a regular environment newsletter and posts environmental education materials throughout the course that identify flora and fauna—including eagles, herons, boars, civet, and porcupines—that can be found on the property.

The club’s work with the community recently resulted in partnerships to fund and run a fleet of solar-powered golf carts and hybrid ferries to the 54-hole, 618-acre course, which was once a military firing range.

(See photos of aquatic species.)

Published April 9, 2011

Klosters Golf Club, Switzerland

Photograph by Johannes Vogt courtesy the Golf Environment Organization

The Klosters Golf Club in Switzerland is GEO’s first pick for overall environmental quality, in part because of its versatile land-use management strategy and the challenges it faces at 3,900 feet in a highly sensitive alpine environment.

The public nine-hole course becomes the lower portion of a popular ski resort in the winter. Canadian architect Les Furber worked on the conversion five years ago and was able to incorporate the region’s rolling alpine landscape and wildflower meadows into the course design. Of the property’s 49 acres, only 20 require intense turf management.

The club works regularly with environment nonprofits Pro Natura and WWF to monitor and protect the meadows, which host more than 160 plant species, including rare anemone and orchids, and are home to more than 90 species of flying insects.

Two strips of glacial moraine traversing the golf course remain undisturbed, as do several historic hay barns still used by local farmers.

Published April 9, 2011

SilverTip Golf Course, Alberta, Canada

Photograph by Aidan Bradley

Another Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary course, SilverTip is set before the Canadian Rockies and in 2008 its superintendent earned a GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award for balancing high-altitude habitat concerns with high expectations for aesthetics and playing conditions.

The award recognizes golf course superintendents and their courses for conservation and environmental education efforts, water quality and wildlife management, and low-chemical input pest management.

The momentum to green is growing, but nearly 2 billion gallons of water are still used each year to irrigate 1.5 billion acres of greens, tees, fairways, and rough in the United States alone, according to the GCSAA’s Environment Institute for Golf. That’s enough to supply about 50 million people in the U.S. with household water for a day. Most courses still rely on about 150 pounds of potentially polluting nitrogen and 65 pounds of phosphate per acre every year to maintaining that lush green look.

“I don’t want to portray the story that everything is rosy,” says GCSAA Environment Director Gregory Lyman. “But we are driven to get better.”

Published April 9, 2011

Mirimichi, Tennessee

Photograph by Aidan Bradley

Justin Timberlake’s Mirimichi course in Millington, Tennessee, is the first in the U.S. to earn both GEO and Audubon International certification.

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses maintains a roster of about 900 courses globally that are considered environmentally friendly.

Timberlake and his family bought the property, then the Big Creek Golf Course, in 2007 to save it from residential development, according to a press release from Mirimichi. In 2009 it was reopened as a sustainable course.

Highlights include native species reintroduction efforts and habitat improvements. Russell DeMotsis, Mirimichi’s horticulturalist and environmental specialist, concentrates on species that are naturally found in southwestern Tennessee. “When you introduce natives, they require very little, if any, fertilizers, pruning, and maintenance,” DeMotsis explains. “What I have found is that if I try to fertilize natives, I’m actually hurting them.”

Constructed and natural wetlands and retention ponds attract native cattails and bald cypress and a whole suite of wildlife. “Most golf courses are trying to get rid of wildlife, because they destroy everything; I’m trying to bring it in,” DeMotsis says, adding that if the habitat is good enough, the wildlife will stay in the rough or wetland areas and off the fairway, green, and tees. (The only problem he’s run into, he says, is beavers building dams that flood sections of the course.)

The greens and fairway grasses—Champion Bermuda and Mississippi Express—may not be native, but are highly engineered to be a bit more resistant to drought, explains DeMotsis.

“It is still a golf course so you have to meet the golfers halfway; that is the bread and butter,” he says.

While the upfront costs may have been a bit higher, more than 100 acres of turf has been converted to native grasslands on the 300-acre property, helping to reduce maintenance costs.

Published April 9, 2011

Auchterarder Golf Club, Scotland

Photograph by Archie Dunn courtesy the Golf Environment Organization

Established in 1892 near a small town in rural Scotland, the Auchterarder Golf Club is a leader in energy efficiency, according to the Golf Environment Organization.

After a 2007 energy audit, the club decided to switch to renewable energy sources—primarily hydropower. (Read more on the country’s hydro infrastructure.) Energy efficiency measures include better insulating windows, energy meters, low-energy lighting, electric golf carts, and ride-sharing incentives for employees.

Energy savings have also come from landscape changes. The club reduced its carbon footprint when it converted manicured turf areas to grassland and forest that require less irrigation (and energy) and fewer chemical inputs. Fertilizer applications, which take a fair amount of energy to produce, have been limited to three or four times a season at tees and once a year on the fairway.

Published April 9, 2011

Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort, Mexico

Photograph by Benjamin Warren courtesy Golf Environment Organization

The Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico, was host to the UN COP16 Climate Convention last year and is recognized by GEO for ecosystem revitalization and native habitat protection for rare jaguars, crocodiles, frogs, turtles, lizards, and birds.

More than two-thirds of the property, including 124 acres of wetlands, is a nature preserve. The wildlife there is monitored by staff and frequently spotted by golfers on each of the property’s three nine-hole courses. Habitat areas are connected to one another inside the property, and then to surrounding jungle and coastline. Golf was planned around sensitive wetland habitats, including cenotes, or sinkholes, that expose groundwater.

Published April 9, 2011

Broken Sound Club, Florida

Photograph by Joe Hubbard courtesy the Golf Environment Organization

The Broken Sound Club, a 36-hole prestigious members' club in Boca Raton, Florida, has hosted the PGA Senior Tour Allianz Championship since 2007 and excels at waste reduction and management, according to GEO.

“They have a fantastic community-based green waste recycling, composting, and resource reduction initiative,” says GEO’s Smith.

An aggressive composting program makes use of grass clippings and food waste from the property and surrounding community and the resulting nutrient-rich compost is used to help fertilize fairways and roughs, a measure that can help reduce the use of manufactured fertilizers.

The clubhouse has stopped using polystyrene cups, and the pro shops specialize in products from companies that monitor their supply chains for environmental stewardship and efficiency.

Published April 9, 2011

Pasatiempo Golf Club, California

Photograph by Rob Babcock

Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California, is a great example of golf course water conservation, according to Greg Lyman at the GCSAA.

Another Audubon International-certified course, Pasatiempo worked with the City of Santa Cruz to build water-recycling infrastructure. Reused water is critical for course irrigation during dry summer months.

The club has pledged to reduce water usage by planting more drought-resistant native grasses. And the course maintains “no spray” zones, like many other environmentally friendly courses, around waterways.

Published April 9, 2011