On the second day of Sustainable Golf Week, hosted by the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, the focus is on “Golf Courses of the Future.” As we look to find more sustainable ways to maintain our golf courses, methods and approaches within greenkeeping are altering. Expectations from golfers will also have to alter as greater control on water and chemicals mean playing surfaces are changing. We spoke to Jim Croxton, Chief Executive of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) to find out more about sustainable golf course maintenance and the challenges faced by the modern greenkeeper.
Golf Courses of the Future
(Image credit: West Cliffs)
BIGGA has worked hard with The R&A in recent years on a project called “Golf Course 2030.” Its objective has been to answer the question, ‘How can we have the same playing surfaces that we use today with only 25% of the water usage, no chemicals and no fertilisers?’ BIGGA greenkeepers, scientists, the STRI and R&A agronomists have been working on the project. It has displayed the need to adapt the approach to golf course maintenance.
“In the last couple of years, challenges in the world, let alone our industry, have really intensified the need to act,” says Jim Croxton. “There are so many challenges with climate, with regulations and resources. Within those resources I now tend to throw labour as a finite resource in the same way that water and sand would be included.”
Restrictions on the use of fertilisers and on treatment for the likes of leatherjackets and chafer bugs that can damage turf condition have been a challenge for greens teams but perhaps the most significant problem to be faced now and in coming years is the shortage of water.
“Water usage is going to become a major problem and I think golfers are going to have to get used to golf courses that are different colours in different seasons,” says Jim Croxton. “We’re going to see times of water scarcity. Clubs are investing in their water resilience and that’s important – bore holes or even reservoirs.”
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