Golf Courses

views updated

Golf courses

The game of golf appears to be derived from ancient stick-and-ball games long played in western Europe. However, the first documented rules of golf were established in 1744, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Golf was first played in the United States in the 1770s, in Charleston, South Carolina. It was not until the 1880s, however, that the game began to become widely popular, and it has increasingly flourished since then. In 2002, there were about 16,000 golf courses in the United States, and thousands more in much of the rest of the world.

Golf is an excellent form of outdoor recreation . There are many health benefits of the game, associated with the relatively mild form of exercise and extensive walking that can be involved. However, the development and management of golf courses also results in environmental damage of various kinds. The damage associated with golf courses can engender intense local controversy, both for existing facilities and when new ones are proposed for development.

The most obvious environmental affect of golf courses is associated with the large amounts of land that they appropriate from other uses. Depending on its design, a typical 18-hole golf course may occupy an area of about 100-200 acres. If the previous use of the land was agricultural, then conversion to a golf course results in a loss of food production. Alternatively, if the land previously supported forest or some other kind of natural ecosystem , then the conversion results in a large, direct loss of habitat for native species of plants and animals.

In fact, some particular golf courses have been extremely controversial because their development caused the destruction of the habitat of endangered species or rare kinds of natural ecosystems. For instance, the Pebble Beach Golf Links course, one of the most famous in the world, was developed in 1919 on the Monterey Peninsula of central California, in natural coastal and forest habitats that harbor numerous rare and endangered species of plants and animals. Several additional gold courses and associated tourist facilities were subsequently developed nearby, all of them also displacing natural ecosystems and destroying the habitat of rare species . Most of those recreational facilities were developed at a time when not much attention was paid to the needs of endangered species. Today, however, the conservation of biodiversity is considered an important issue. It is quite likely that if similar developments were now proposed in such critical habitats, citizen groups would mount intense protests and government regulators would not allow the golf courses to be built.

The most intensively modified areas on golf courses are the fairways, putting greens, aesthetic lawns and gardens, and other highly managed areas. Because these kinds of areas are intrinsic to the design of golf courses, a certain amount of loss of natural habitat is inevitable. To some degree, however, the net amount of habitat loss can be decreased by attempting, to the degree possible, to retain natural community types within the golf course. This can be done particularly effectively in the brushy and forested areas between the holes and their approaches. The habitat quality in these less-intensively managed areas can also be enhanced by providing nesting boxes and brush piles for use by birds and small mammals, and by other management practices known to favor wildlife . Habitat quality is also improved by planting native species of plants wherever it is feasible to do so.

In addition to land appropriation, some of the management practices used on golf courses carry the risk of causing local environmental damage. This is particularly the case of putting greens, which are intensively managed to maintain an extremely even and consistent lawn surface.

For example, to maintain a monoculture of desired species of grasses on putting greens and lawns, intensive management practices must be used. These include frequent mowing, fertilizer application, and the use of a variety of pesticidal chemicals to deal with various pests affecting the turfgrass. This may involve the application of such herbicides as Roundup (glyphosate), 2,4-D , MCPP, or Dicamba to deal with undesirable weeds. Herbicide application is particularly necessary when putting greens and lawns are being first established. Afterward their use can be greatly reduced by only using spot-applications directly onto turf-grass weeds. Similarly, fungicides might be used to combat infestations of turf-grass disease fungi , such as the fusarium blight (Fusarium culmorum ), take-all patch (Gaeumannomyces graminis ), and rhizoctonia blight (Rhizoctonia solani ).

Infestations by turf-damaging insects may also be a problem, which may be dealt with by one or more insecticide applications. Some important insect pests of golf-course turf-grasses include the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica ), chafer beetles (Cyclocephala spp.), June beetles (Phyllophaga spp.), and armyworm beetle (Pseudaletia unipuncta ). Similarly, rodenticides may be needed to get rid of moles (Scalopus aquaticus ) and their burrows.

Golf courses can also be a major user of water, mostly for the purposes of irrigation in dry climates or during droughty periods. This can be an important problem in semi-arid regions, such as much of the southwestern U.S., where water is a scare and valuable commodity with many competing users. To some degree, water use can be decreased by ensuring that irrigation is only practiced when necessary, and only in specific places where it is needed, rather than according to a fixed schedule and in a broadcast manner. In some climatic areas, nature-scaping and other low-maintenance practices can be used over extensive areas of golf courses. This can result in intensive irrigation only being practiced in key areas, such as putting greens, and to a lesser degree fairways and horticultural lawns.

Many golf courses have ponds and lakes embedded in their spatial design. If not carefully managed, these waterbodies can become severely polluted by nutrients, pesticides, and eroded materials. However, if care is taken with golf-course management practices, their ponds and lakes can sustain healthy ecosystems and provide refuge habitat for local native plants and animals.

Increasingly, golf-course managers and industry associations are attempting to find ways to support their sport while not causing an unacceptable amount of environmental damage. One of the most important initiatives of this kind is the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, run by the Audubon International, a private conservation organization. Since 1991, this program has been providing environmental education and conservation advice to golf-course managers and designers. By 2002, membership in this Audubon program had grown to more than 2,300 courses in North America and elsewhere in the world.

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses provides advice to help planners and managers with: (a) environmental planning; (b) wildlife and habitat management; (c) chemical use reduction and safety; (d) water conservation ; and (e) outreach and education about environmentally appropriate management practices. If a golf course completes recommended projects in all of the components of the program, it receives recognition as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. This allows the golf course to claim that it is conducting its affairs in a certifiably "green" manner. This results in tangible environmental benefits of various kinds, while being a source of pride of accomplishment for employees and managers, and providing a potential marketing benefit to a clientele of well-informed consumers.

There are many specific examples of environmental benefits that have resulted from golf courses engaged in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. For instance, seven golf courses in Arizona and Washington have allowed the installation of 150 artificial nesting burrows for burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia ), an endangered species, on suitable habitat on their land. In 2000, Audubon International conducted a survey of cooperating golf courses, and the results were rather impressive. About 78% of the respondents reported that they had decreased the total amount of turf-grass area on their property; 73% had taken steps to increase the amount of wildlife habitat; 45% were engaged in an ecosystem restoration project; 90% were attempting to use native plants in their horticulture; and 85% had decreased their use of pesticides and 91% had switched to lowertoxicity chemicals. Just as important, about half of the respondents believed that there had been an improvement in the playing quality of their golf course and in the satisfaction of both employees and their client golfers. Moreover, none of the respondents believed that any of these values had been degraded as a result of adopting the management practices advised by the Audubon International program.

These are all highly positive indicators. They suggest that the growing and extremely popular sport of golf can, within limits, potentially be practiced in ways that do not cause unacceptable levels of environmental and ecological damage.

[Bill Freedman Ph.D. ]

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Balogh, J. C., and W. J. Walker, eds. Golf Course Management and Construction: Environmental Issues. Leeds, UK: Lewis Publishers, 1992.

Gillihan, S. W. Bird Conservation on Golf Courses: A Design and Management Manual. Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Press, 1992.

Sachs, P. D., and R.T. Luff. Ecological Golf Course Management. Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Press, 2002.

OTHER

"Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf." Audubon International. 2002 [cited July 2002]. –http://www.audubonintl.org/programs/acss/golf.htm>.

United States Golf Association. [cited July 2002]. <http://www.usga.org>.