CONTINUED: Does the future of the golf industry lie in "green" golf courses?

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Beautiful, lush brown grass

In his article for Golf Digest, “How Green is Golf?,” John Barton interviews seven leading thinkers about the intersection between golf and the environment: a golf-course architect, an anti-pesticide activist, an organic golf-course superintendent, a government regulator, a golf-course inspector, a turfgrass expert, and an environmentalist.  With the exception of perhaps the anti-pesticide activist, all those interviewed have had a long-term love affair with the game of golf.

Mike Hurdzan, one of the world’s pre-eminent golf course architects, talks about changing people’s perception around what constitutes a “good” course:

We need to change the perception that golf must be played on green grass. When that grass goes brown it's not dead, it's dormant. It's a natural cycle—there are times of the year when the grass is going to be green, and other times when it's going to be brown, and if we allow that to happen, we won't need to use as much water. If there's some brown grass, it's not so bad; it's still a fun game. Nowhere does it say in the rules that golf has to be played on green grass.

Hurdzan is also excited about the positive affect golf can have on degraded land. For example, one of the golf courses he built, Widow’s Walk, was an abandoned sand and gravel quarry and garbage landfill. Working with environmentalists, Hurdzan transformed this site into a thriving, eco-friendly public golf course.

Another interview subject, Jeff Carlson, is the golf course superintendent at the Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Designed by British architects Donald Steel and Tom Mackenzie, this course is America’s only truly organic golf course. Carlson admits that maintaining the course using only organic methods can often be labor intensive and time consuming, especially when it comes down to finding alternatives to the much faster (but deadlier) pesticides most golf courses use. He says:

The products are a big part of it. The second part is cultural practices. For fungal diseases, for example, the big issue is leaf wetness. I do whatever I can to minimize the duration of leaf wetness. We don't use that much irrigation. We use wetting agents to remove dew, sand top-dressing on greens; we whip greens and fairways [whisking away dew]. And the third piece of the puzzle, as important as the other two, is communication, working with our members and explaining this idea of great playability versus visual perfection. We take the focus away from having every piece of fairway and rough perfectly green. The members have to be on board, or the superintendent wouldn't last too long.

It’s interesting to note that Carlson also identifies a change in cultural perception as key to the “greening” of golf courses. Could a cure to the deadly Augusta Syndrome go hand-in-hand with increasing the sustainability of golf courses, and therefore, the golf industry?

It’s still too early to predict whether the golf industry can weather this transitional time and come out on top by turning green—but it’s worth a try. The National Golf Foundation estimates that there are more than 16,000 golf courses with nearly 30 million golfers, playing an estimated 520 million rounds of golf each year. Those big numbers have to count for something.

 

Life on the greens

Unless you’re the next Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam, you better get a good education under your belt if you want to work in re-shaping the golf industry. These world-renowned golfers are using their international name recognition to enter the world of golf course design, as did Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer before them. Celebrity culture aside, there’s something to be said about a true expert drawing from their years of experience in a sport they’ve played their entire lives.

In fact, a true love for the game seems to be a requisite for those looking to enter golf course architecture. The other must-have is a solid education, whether it takes the form of a degree in landscape architecture or environmental planning. For the golf course superintendent who works so closely with the golf course architect to achieve the desired course, your education could include training in turf management, plant physiology, horticulture, or golf course management.  

And the final component to pursuing a career in golf course architecture is the willingness to work hard—really hard for years. But when you finally look out over that course you built, filled with happy, plaid-clad golfers and wandering deer, it will all be worth it.