15 Nov 2024
Golf – where nature and people play
One of the great things about golf is how it gives people time in nature.
Not just for a passing few minutes, but as a slower immersion that will typically last between two and four hours.
In fact, the majority of golf courses put around 2000 different people in nature for a cumulative 120,000 hours per year.
Golf courses also often provide opportunities for non-golfers to enjoy the benefits of local greenspaces and landscapes. The majority of courses provide for at least one additional form of recreational access and multi-functionality, many provide more, mostly around the fringes of the golfing landscape.
“Higher quality landscapes provide for higher quality golfing experiences and associated wellbeing benefits.”.png)
What kind of nature does golf steward?
Well, it’s diverse and ranges from urban parklands, native woodlands, open grasslands, heathlands, scrublands, coastal sand dunes and cliff tops, converted farmland, hillside, flood and riverside. Golf courses are found in and adaptable to many landscape and ecological settings.
And how good is that nature?
Studies have shown that golf courses rate well in terms of biological diversity due to habitat diversity and also the varied landscape ecology of courses – with many patches, corridors and edges.
Courses are often referred to as ‘living landscapes’, although in some cases are criticised for being ecologically degraded – i.e. too heavily managed or modified to provide truly meaningful ecological function.
This point is important.
Further studies into the psychological and physiological benefits of being in nature show that the quality of the environment counts. So, spending time in an urban park with a few amenity trees and the constant hum of traffic is different from being in a habitat and wildlife-rich nature reserve surrounded by birdsong.
The relevance here to golf is that higher quality landscapes provide for higher quality golfing experiences and associated wellbeing benefits.
“Golf can help the next generation understand the critical nature of nature.”
Of course, as with so many aspects of sustainability the question is as much about what we do going forward as what we currently provide.
In terms of golf, nature and people that means exploring how we can let even more nature in, and how creatively and to the benefit of local golf businesses, we can engage even more closely with communities. The efforts of clubs to create outdoor education spaces, then speak to schools and nurseries, to bring young people into direct contact with the natural world are both inspiring and important if the next generation is to understand more about the critical nature of nature.
There are many ways to boost nature for golfers and others, and in tandem to reach out and connect with communities. Be inspired, learn from others and share your stories at the Sustainable Golf Highlights Hub.
