Water water everywhere… but not enough for golfers.
How green are your greens?
It seems illogical that vast swaths of open space, surrounded by trees, interspersed with ponds, creeks and streams, could be anything but environmentally friendly. However, poor water management, chemical use and the impact of land clearing for golf courses can all be particularly harmful.
Throughout the golf industry water use is acknowledged as one of the most pressing environmental concerns. To that end, golf’s governing bodies such as the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient (R&A) based in Scotland are promoting the development of enhanced water management practices.
Toronto-based golf course architect and principal of Carrick Design, Doug Carrick understands the importance of an environmentally sensitive approach to design, particularly with regards to water use.
“The thing we are doing more and more of today are water storage reservoirs on golf courses. They try to capture as much runoff on site as possible,” Carrick said. “We’re always trying to reduce the reliance of water taken from the ground water and the aquifers. So storage areas become a lot more important as we try to conserve water.”
Grasses have been developed to operate in specific locations and, when managed correctly can play a significant role in reducing the impact on the water table and the overall environmental impact of the golf course. Stew Bennett is an agronomist and golf course superintendant with 30 years experience. His Florida based company, SaltScape Solutions, began breeding and developing a saline-resistant type of grass called Seashore Paspalum in 1994.
“It (Paspalum) has gained popularity in the last five years mainly because it is salt tolerant,” Bennett said. “It has been used on golf courses that may not have access to that much freshwater for irrigation. It has also gained popularity in non-coastal environments because of its ability to thrive in effluent water.”
Turf technology has advanced significantly over the past 20 years. Designers have a wide range of grass varieties at their disposal. To the naked eye grass appears to be grass, however for those in the turf business, location plays a huge role in grass selection, Bennett said.
Developed to thrive in tropical and sub-tropical conditions, Paspalum would simply die in Ontario. Carrick, though, is working to develop a grass that would ease the pressure on local water sources.
“We are experimenting with varieties of blue grass that are drought tolerant,” Carrick said. “They are able to withstand long periods without water and effectively become dormant. This is particularly useful in desert locations but also places like Ontario where the summers can be hot and dry.”
Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington D.C.-based non- profit environmental pressure group acknowledged a lot of effort has been made by the golf industry to limit the environmental impact of courses through technological advances, however one key area of concern is often unaddressed.
“The challenge starts on day one of a new development,” Feldman said. “Too often what we see is the good soil with all the important life and microorganisms in it taken off the development site and turf is brought in without much topsoil to support it. So in a sense, from day one, the course is undermined by the soil types that the turf is being asked to grow on.”
In North America, golf course construction has boomed regardless of course style. Over the last few years, the term minimalism has become prevalent in North American golf course design. Essentially, it is an architectural term, referring to the look of a course that is designed to reflect the local landscape. Based on the original British links courses, the minimalist approach to design does not necessarily mean the environmental impact of a course is lessened.
One of the key differences between British links courses and those in North America is history. Based in England, Kevin Munt, a golf course maintenance and operations consultant for over 30 years, said British courses tend to blend in with the local area.
“A lot of British courses have been in existence for a long time,” Munt said. “They exist in very sound environmental areas already, particularly heath land and links style courses, where their ecology is already quite well developed. We haven’t had to worry about minimalism and design”
Carrick cautioned that people should understand exactly what the term minimalist means and warned that it does not necessarily mean a lower environmental impact.
“If a course is truly minimalist you’re talking about a number of different things from how much earth is moved to how much manipulation of the landscape there is, to how much maintained area there is on the golf course.”
According to Feldman, managing golfers’ expectations can go along way to creating an environmentally sound golf course. He said it is unrealistic for regular golfers to expect picture perfect conditions, as seen on television. In Toronto, for example, 45,000 rounds of golf are played each year on the city run Don Valley golf course.
“We need to find a way to get some compatibility between the game and the environment in which it operates,” Feldman said. “There is too much pressure on superintendents to produce Augusta-like courses. At times they’ll resort to poor management practices, introduction of chemicals and bad environmental decisions to achieve that.”
By Steve Darley
