With the global population growing to the earth’s breaking point, golf has gotten a lot of flak over the years for its seemingly disproportionate use of our dwindling resources. Tourism Concern (a British organization that works “with communities in destination countries to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism”) calculates that “an average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1,500 kg of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers.”
Golf courses are often sizable properties, often enjoyed solely by the affluent so they make easy, conspicuous targets for the more aggressive proponents of the environment. The Guardian’s Ben Adler makes a case against golf courses, saying, “Golf courses and the attendant resort and retirement communities demonstrate a preference for carefully crafted imitations of nature and small-town life to the real thing, and they impose landscape and architectural norms better suited to the American Northeast climate.”
But are golf courses the evil, resource devouring, chemical dumping wastes of property that some environmental zealots make them out to be?
It is true that golf courses require significant amounts of water and other inputs to keep the course in acceptable condition. It takes power and energy to cut the grass, clear the fairways of leaf litter and other debris, irrigate the course and do all the other things contribute to preparing it for the patrons to play.
Looking at it from a distance, it is easy to think that keeping a golf course green does horrible things to the environment, but a closer look shows that golf courses are much friendlier to Mother Nature than one would think. A well-managed golf course provides substantial ecological and community benefits.
The facilities not only offer recreation, but also provide an environmental sanctuary to numerous plant and animal species. Some of the most prominent golf courses in the country are Audubon sanctuaries that have documented all the endemic species that call the golf courses their home.
Most don’t realize the cleansing effect golf courses have on air and water, which filters through local communities. Healthy turfgrass is an excellent filter that traps pollutants, preventing them from reaching groundwater supplies. Golf courses can serve as catch basins for residential and industrial runoff. In fact, golf courses are effective disposal sites for effluent wastewater. A golf course is also an effective way to reclaim an environmentally damaged site like a landfill.
Golf courses can do more to lessen their impact on the environment. First and foremost is the choice of turfgrasses. Because Augusta National and the worldwide broadcast of the Masters Tournament have spoiled the image that all golfers have of the ideal golf course, golf courses everywhere have endeavored to make their golf courses look as much like Augusta National as they can. Of course, few have a budget that even remotely approaches that of the club that Bobby Jones built, so many fail in this regard.
The sensible thing to do is to use as many indigenous grasses as possible. This lessens the inputs required while providing a healthy playing surface for the golfers. The Ayala Corp. managed to strike a good compromise with both Anvaya Cove and Southlinks Golf Club.
Both golf courses use zoysia matrella or Philippine Bermuda grass for the tee boxes, fairways and primary rough. For the greens, they went to a micro-Bermuda called mini-verde to provide the best possible putting surface on the greens. But as good a compromise as this is, some golf properties have gone to setups that utilize endemic turfgrass for the entire golf course.
Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s legendary East Course has long been carpeted with carabao grass on its fairways and zoysia matrella on its greens. Nothing wrong with this setup except for the fact that its carabao fairways don’t drain very well during the wet season. The zoysia greens are fabulous if a bit quirky. They roll the ball beautifully but reading them takes some local knowledge; they are grainy, and this affects the line of putt significantly. Otherwise, the greens on the East Course are beautiful and the course is as tough as they come.
The East Course was recognized by the Royal & Ancient for their choices of turfgrass and it’s made a huge impact on the club’s bottom line, too. Since endemics cover the entire East Course, their maintenance costs are almost insignificant. Really, all they need to do is cut the grass, roll the greens, rake the bunkers and make sure the course is neat and tidy for the members.
Caliraya Springs was in rough shape when Atlanta Land took over management of the golf club. Since then, the Tifton 419 fairways have been overgrown by carabao grass and the club subsequently converted the greens to zoysia. The club has done very well for itself and recently started construction of the second 18.
Summit Point Golf and Country Club has also gone down this road, allowing the fairways to convert to carabao while maintaining their tifdwarf greens. But zoysia and paspalum have begun to infiltrate Summit Point’s greens as well and, before too long, they might give in and just allow the zoysia to take over.
Zoysia greens aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Yes, zoysia greens are grainy but zoysia is also endemic, which means that it is perfectly suited for our climate and should be inexpensive and easy to maintain. A healthy playing surface means that the club can focus on making the greens play the way they want them to and not on just keeping them alive.
Tagaytay Highlands has successfully converted their tifdwarf greens over to zoysia and is so much better for it. The fairways were already zoysia so this move makes total sense. The greens roll beautifully and are so much more cost effective to maintain. No chemicals or fertilizer; just verticutting, rolling and a bit of nitrogen to keep things nice and green. We visited them two months ago and were very impressed with their playability. They act like good greens should.
The real issue will be whether golfers will embrace the changes to endemic grasses on their golf courses. Many have become quite accustomed to putting on the micro-Bermudas like tifeagle, mini-verde and a new strain called Sunday, which Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club is planting on their newly refurbished greens.
We have also become accustomed to playing off Tifton 419 or another Bermuda strain on the fairways. Short game shots react differently when played off one of the Bermuda strains. A different technique is required to play from carabao grass; one unfamiliar to golfers that have cut their teeth on foreign turfgrasses.
Then there’s the tourist market that pays top dollar and demands the best-conditioned golf course possible. How will they take to a course that doesn’t fit their idea of what a perfectly manicured golf course should be? Will they enjoy themselves? Or will they leave, never to return?
The tourist question is a tough one. The expectations are very high here and the Philippines has plenty of competition in Malaysia and Thailand that are willing to invest huge sums in their golf courses to lure tourists from faraway lands. We could lose out completely.
But golf is golf. The varying conditions we face on different courses are part of the challenge. Learning to cope with them is intrinsic to the game of golf. We aren’t the only country facing these challenges, either. Saint Andrews’s Old Course sits on what amounts to public land. There are so many different kinds of grasses on its fairways and greens and yet people come from all over the world to play. The course remains supremely playable, no matter what type of grass dominates its fairways and greens. It sets the example for the industry worldwide.
The game of golf, indeed the whole world, is in flux. The industry has tough choices to make. Each club will do what it deems best for its survival, however unpopular that might be. The clubs that have embraced the “naturalization” of their golf courses simply don’t have the funds to fight nature’s onslaught, but those that do, persist down that path.
It will come down to striking the right balance between the expectations of the golfer and making the correct choices with regard to the playing surfaces. We all need to understand the pressures that the world faces today and adapt the game, so it retains its core values and therefore its attraction to all that play it. Golf is, as someone once said, the greatest game ever played and we, as the game’s heirs, need to ensure its success and survival in this rapidly evolving world.
Image credits: Mike Besa