Sustainable Golf has launched a campaign to encourage golf clubs and golf course owners and managers to enhance their venue’s sustainability credentials and accelerate golf’s contribution to fighting climate change.
The ‘Do One Thing #ForSustainableGolf’ campaign has three aims for professionals or volunteers working on the course or in the clubhouse:
- Helping you kick-start and build momentum in sustainable golf throughout 2022
- Connecting you with guidance and ideas for your first or next action
- Encouraging you to celebrate and share your examples and results
As well as doing more for the planet and society, there are many benefits of taking an increasingly sustainable approach to golf course maintenance. These include:
- Saving your club money for investing in other areas
- Saving time so your team can prioritize projects and tasks
- Providing a more natural and unique course without impacting playability
Examples of clubs adopting more sustainable management include Anderstein in the Netherlands, where the club has changed its fairway mowing patterns, saving time, money and resources and cutting emissions.
At Thornbury Golf Club in England, a high maintenance bunker was filled in with soil from other parts of the course and covered with gorse bushes to provide habitats for birds and mammals. The gorse flowers are also a good food source for pollinators.
In Oman, Al Mouj Golf undertook an audit of its irrigation sprinkler heads and saved 100,000 cubic metres of water and $28,000 in the process.
Building momentum in sustainable golf starts with doing one more thing. And you can find the guidance and ideas you need using the OnCourse programme, browsing the Sustainable Golf Highlights Hub, and might even want to go on to become GEO Certified.
There are a some things you can do to get inspired:
- Join OnCourse for free
- Browse over 1,200 Sustainable Golf Highlights for ideas from around the world
- Follow the sustainable golf social media accounts below and use #ForSustainableGolf in your posts
- Shout about your successes – share your best Sustainable Golf Highlights and you could be named ‘Highlight of the Month’ on social media
Jamie Graham, communications manager for Sustainable Golf, said: “It’s so exciting to see the range of great work that’s being done on courses globally. There’s always scope to do more though and together we can build momentum throughout 2022 and beyond to tackle the most pressing issues facing golf, society and the planet.”
