10 Aug 2021
Total adult golfers on a full-length course (9 or 18-hole) increased significantly by 2.1 million players to 5.2 million last year – the highest figure recorded this century - according to the 2020 GB&I Golf Participation Report based on research led by The R&A. It also found that 95% of those interviewed see themselves playing golf for many years to come, and similar trends have been witnessed in golfing nations around the world.
While it's fantastic to see the sport gaining popularity, this undoubtedly puts additional pressure on the condition of courses and the hardworking course managers who maintain them daily.
Figures from BIGGA and Sports Marketing Surveys found that in 2020, there were approximately 12million more footsteps, 8,000 more pitch marks and 18,000 additional divots for greenkeepers and superintendents to contend with as a result of the increased participation.
Time is a precious commodity, now more than ever due to increased footfall, but is it possible to reap the rewards of a more sustainable golf course while saving time and money?
There’s a significant range of basic and innovative actions to explore, and here are five simple ways you can achieve a win-win situation at your club:
Naturalize out-of-play areas
Mowing your out-of-play areas less often can save a lot of time and money and reduce wear on equipment and the amount of fuel consumed.
Whether you're considering areas between golf holes or simply banks around tees and walkways, this can add to the visual appeal of your course. Naturalized rough should only require periodical 'cut and collect' to maximize the ecological benefit and thin the grassland habitat down to playable conditions for golf – ensuring that these areas are good for golfers and wildlife.
Here's a great example from Keilir Golf Club in Iceland.
And Howard Craft, Club Manager, Berkhamsted Golf Club and Sustainable Golf Champion, is a keen advocate of naturalization:
"One of the large areas where we have created efficiency is that of tee banks. We've taken the opportunity to grow up three sides of the tee banks and now just maintain the side that golfers walk onto... This aesthetically gives the view of the tee being 'sunk' into the landscape more and has reduced maintenance time considerably. The evolution of this will be the planting and encouragement of heather and gorse to further naturalize the banks and aesthetics of the course."
Audit your irrigation
Every drop counts, as the saying goes, so carefully managing the irrigation of your playing areas can have a significant impact. Reviewing your system's efficiency can identify ways to save water, save time fixing problems and reduce your need to hand-water surfaces.
Suppose your irrigation system is starting to show its age. In that case, a review will identify if investing in your system will reduce irrigation cycle time and if upgraded heads will reduce the need for hand-watering. Using data to track your playing surfaces will also help guide your use of irrigation, ensuring that the turf is getting what it needs where it needs it. While this will require a little time initially, the time and cost savings could be well worth it.
You could also start to look even further into more non-irrigated areas - waste grounds, natural vegetation and open sand scrub areas, for example.
Change your mowing patterns
An easy switch to a less labour-intensive mowing pattern can save time and fuel costs, making it more sustainable.
Depending on how you like to present your course, moving from a striped pattern to block cut in fairways can save hours every week. The same can be said for roughs and landscape areas, whilst less turning can reduce wear on the turf at a time when footfall is higher than ever on many courses.
Changing fairway mowing patterns can also help reduce your CO2 emissions.
Ask members to pitch in
For many, the pandemic has reminded us all how important our golf clubs and courses are – and how much they mean to us. It's everyone's club, so why not involve your club’s community and ask for help to keep the course in top condition?
Arranging divot days or asking for help with specific projects frees up more time for essential maintenance and keeping those greens in perfect shape. Setting up small working groups with willing volunteers can be a great way to communicate and build relationships with golfers and strengthen the community involvement that is a key part of sustainable golf. It can also help to provide them with a fresh perspective on the amount and type of work that goes into maintaining their course.
Repairing pitch marks is another area where golfers can make a contribution to help maintain the quality of putting surfaces and reduce the risk of invasive species and having a detrimental impact on biodiversity.
Don't get bunkered
Bunkers remain an area that many greenkeeping teams spend the most maintenance time on, but we've also seen some golfers' opinions on bunker maintenance change during the pandemic.
Presentation of bunkers and their surroundings can be time-consuming, so consider little ways to reduce that. Could hand-mowing, weeding and edging be done less frequently to free up more of your time and provide a more natural look and feel?
What should you do next?
If you're able to take just one of the proven ideas above and run with it at your club, you could start to see the benefits in terms of time and cost savings as well as delivering a more sustainable course.
Greenkeepers are facing unprecedented challenges, but these also bring new opportunities to review current practices through a sustainable golf lens that will benefit everyone.
Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss how the OnCourse programme can help you kick-start or accelerate your sustainable golf journey... and get recognized for your efforts!
