5 Reasons Why Golf Is Great For Cities

Thursday of the inaugural Sustainable Golf Week, hosted by the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, is dedicated to “Golf, Cities and Land.” Within the non-golfing community there remains a perception that golf is a resource-hungry, land-hungry dinosaur of an activity, taking up too much space and requiring too much artificial assistance to sustain. 25 years ago, even those in the golf industry may have struggled to argue against that view. But significant research and significant efforts within golf have been undertaken since then. When approached with sustainability in mind, golf can be of benefit to the environment and can play a key role in communities to both involve and educate those local to a golf club or course.

Golf in cities comes under particular pressure from those against the sport, whether they believe the land could be better used for housing or for total re-wilding. But there are compelling reasons why golf courses are an ideal use of land in urban areas and cities. Here are a few of them:

Environmental Corridors

If you look at an overhead global map of cities across the world, you won’t see too much green. Every available piece of space that’s not protected is developed upon. Golf courses do cover a large area, that’s true, but in cities that’s a large area of green space within a sprawl of concrete and bricks. Golf courses that already exist in cities should be protected and appreciated, while new city developments should consider the benefit of including golf courses in the plans.