by Andres Almonte
Yeah I don’t like golf lol. Golf has a reputation for being a sport primarily enjoyed by and available to the wealthy that takes up far too much land and is, at least in my humble opinion, unbearably boring. My sentiments on golf as a concept can be summed up by this quote from Abbie Richards, “Few things make me angrier than poorly purposed land. Land, for instance, that could be affordable housing, a community farm, a public park, or a natural habitat, but instead has been converted into a massive board game that functions more as a status symbol than as a form of entertainment.” Personal biases aside, golf isn’t just annoying, but harmful for the environment and for people.
A lot of valuable resources are needed just to keep golf courses running. According to the New York Times, “America’s roughly 16,000 golf courses use 1.5 billion gallons of water a day, according to the United States Golf Association, and are collectively treated with 100,000 tons of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium a year.” An important aspect of golf course maintenance is a term known as aeration. According to Victory Ranch, “aeration is the process by which superintendents make holes in the greens to allow air to reach the soil beneath, is a crucial aspect of maintenance.” Aeration is needed “to relieve pressure on the soil” and “when this soil is compacted, it acts like a sponge and holds water at the surface after rain or irrigation. Additionally, excess organic matter inhibits root growth and depletes oxygen, which consequently leads to turf failure.” The Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, notes that “it is relatively common for developers to ravage entire ecosystems in the process. And, in the process of clearing all of this land, heavy machinery emits large amounts of greenhouse gasses. Nearby waterways can also be affected.” Golf courses also require large amounts of pesticides to protect their grass, and this too can lead to unwanted consequences. “Over 50 pesticides are commonly used in the industry although the number typically used on any one course is much lower, ranging from four to 12 per year, depending on the location…”when golf turf is mowed to low heights, the grass is stressed and more vulnerable to pests, which requires more pesticide use.” This is an issue created from the very existence of golf courses and as such is only perpetuated by the continued maintenance of golf courses, made worse when considering the sheer number of golf courses that are out there. According to the National Golf Foundation, “the United States has more golf courses than McDonald’s locations and also has more than any other country, accounting for about 42 percent of all courses worldwide.”
In all fairness, the industry has made some strides to mitigate these issues. The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP) for Golf Courses is an organization that works to “protect and conserve water for surrounding bodies of water, support ecosystems, and protect the surrounding plants and animals. The organization is also looking to provide wildlife sanctuaries, and more.” They’ve recently launched a program called Monarchs in the Rough which has “helped hundreds of golf courses provide habitats for endangered monarch butterflies…it creates monarch butterfly habitats in out-of-play spots throughout U.S. golf courses, allowing for them to pollinate and take shelter when necessary.” Though all of these efforts are well documented and appreciated, they do little to combat the overwhelming damage that golf courses cause as a whole. The sheer amount of water and land that must be taken up for golf courses to run, alongside the danger of unleashing pesticides into the environment and on local wildlife outweigh any good that can come from these conservation efforts. That’s why I propose another method to undo the damage that golf courses have done: repurposing.
There have been people who’ve already taken steps towards repurposing golf courses for the betterment of the environment and people. One notable example is San Geronimo in California. According to CNN “Conservation nonprofits and local authorities are looking to acquire golf courses that have been abandoned due to high maintenance costs, low player numbers or other reasons, and repurpose them into landscapes that boost biodiversity and build natural defenses against climate change.” “We quickly recognized the high restoration value, the conservation value, and the public access recreational value,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, California state director with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. He continues, “you increase public access by taking former private golf courses (and) turning them into public properties … (you return) water back into rivers and streams and create a better habitat for the endangered species that we have in California.” Progress on the site has already been made. Also from the same CNN article, “in 2018, TPL purchased the 157-acre site and began converting the area back into its natural state: turning off the irrigation, removing culverts and dams built to capture water and starting to restore the habitat by planting native species. According to TPL, the rewilding process could take up to 10 years, but there are signs that wildlife is already bouncing back, with bobcats spotted roaming the area.” Strangely enough, despite how overwhelmingly positive the benefits for this project seem to be, there has been pushback from the public. “Rodriguez admits that initially TPL’s plan received some strong opposition from the public, especially from the golfers. But after efforts to involve locals in the design and opening hiking and biking trails in the area attitudes are changing. Now known as San Geronimo Commons, the site is a thriving center for the local community.” A little resistance is inevitable, but after involving the locals in the development of this project, they were able to be won over and brought along on board. The restoration of the San Geronimo land is still underway but much has been done already. “Floodplains will be reconnected, and a fish barrier has been removed, allowing access to more robust migratory and breeding grounds for endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout. Trails are planned that would skirt sensitive habitat, making the land a publicly accessible ecological life raft, starkly different from its time as a golf course.” In just over half a decade, the TPL with the assistance of the very same community in which this project was being developed, turned what would have been just another abandoned golf course into a booming ecosystem for everyone to enjoy.
Golf isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Disappointing as that is for me, I find comfort knowing that the harmful effects golf has had and continues to have on society and nature can be countered by the hard work, determination, and good will of the people.
