Sustainable Golf: Everything you NEED to know

You may be familiar with the term sustainability if you’ve ever purchased a reusable coffee cup or gone to do your weekly shop with a bag for life. But what does sustainable golf really mean?

Sustainable golf courses actively protect nature, conserve resources, and support the community by following a sustainable golf course management program. This means they are making the necessary steps to ensure that you can enjoy the course in the best possible condition without negatively impacting the natural landscape, depleting resources, or neglecting the local community.

There are various ways that a golf course can be sustainable, whether it’s through protecting native species or embracing the naturalisation of the course. However, a truly sustainable golf course not only focuses on protecting the natural environment but also looks at conserving resources and supporting the community.

The sustainability agenda for golf covers themes on Nature, Resources and Community, so that no stone is left unturned when it comes to ensuring golf has a sustainable future. So, next time you’re out on the course see if you can spot any sustainable solutions that cover these themes, as you may be surprised by the extraordinary steps golf is taking to build better foundations for the sport flourish.

Sustainability and quality go hand in hand. By choosing a sustainable course for your next golf break, it not only means you’re giving back to the planet, but you will also be experiencing the best that golf has to offer!

If that’s not enough to make you want to book a sustainable golf break, we have come up with four reasons for why choosing sustainable will help enhance your golf holiday experience:

1. Greener and cleaner for longer!

Whether you prefer cruising down the fairway under the summer sun or tackling the elements during the challenging winter months, we want to make sure that your experience isn’t dampened by soggy greens or burnt-out fairways.

With sustainable golf courses actively monitoring and managing climatic impacts, this means the course will be more resilient to flooding and drought damage for longer periods of time. By playing sustainable golf, you can see the course in a greener and cleaner condition for longer!

2. Get lost in the landscape

Golf is one of the only sports that allows you to really get lost in the landscape, with each course being able to foster nature in a way that enriches your golfing experience. We understand that the uniqueness of a golf course is what makes it special, and that all comes down to how it has been mapped amongst the natural landscape.

Sustainable golf encourages the naturalisation of the course instead of favouring artificial developments, meaning that you will get to experience how the course is supposed to be played with wild rough, impressive bunkers and picturesque scenery.

3. A protected course is a protected player

By booking sustainable this adds an extra level of protection for you as a golfer! We want to ensure that when you book with us, you can enjoy your golf break with minimal risk of unplanned course closures or unfortunate course quality.

Sustainable golf courses are more resilient to adverse weather conditions meaning that climatic impact is less likely to have an impact on your golf round, and so the long-term protection of the course will mean better protection of your golf holiday!

4. See golf’s wild side

The golf course is not only enjoyed by us golfers, but it is also home to a variety of wildlife and native species that help to bring the course to life!

Sustainable golf aims to protect and preserve natural habitats for native species, as well as encourage the growth and return of local plant and animal life. This means you can reconnect with nature on your next golf break as you share the course with curious creatures and floral favourites from around the world. Even see nature reclaim the course during the Spring season as ducklings re-emerge in the lakes, flowers blossom amongst the trees and rabbits scurry amidst the heathlands.

If you want to help make golf more sustainable then there are things you can do as a golfer that will help to protect the course and build a better future for golf! To make things easier we have three simple suggestions that you can adopt on your next round to help make you a more sustainable golfer:

1. Go plastic free

One way to protect the natural environment out on the golf course is to play a plastic free round of golf. There are many ways you can play plastic free, such as using bamboo golf tees, carrying a reusable water bottle around with you or using a metal pitch mark repair!

If you can try and limit as much single use plastic out on the golf course as possible, this will help to reduce your carbon footprint whilst also preventing plastic pollution on the course.

2. Repair and replace

Repairing and replacing isn’t new in the game of golf, it’s something that us golfers are constantly being reminded to do after landing that birdie putt on the green or taking a clean divot on the fairway. However, it’s something that we easily forget when our eagerness to hit the next shot takes over.

By repairing our pitch marks and replacing our divots, this will not only ensure that the course continues to be in top condition, but it will also help to protect the turf from any long-lasting damage that could have an impact on your next round.

3. Respect the boundaries

We always try and respect golfer’s boundaries on the course, such as keeping quiet during play, or allowing others to putt out before hitting our next shot. But it is also just as important to respect the boundaries of the course, such as driving buggies on the set paths or keeping trolleys off the greens. The boundaries that have been set on the course are to help protect and preserve the natural environment so that the courses you love can continue to be in the best quality for as long as possible.