By saving your golf course you help save our world, a lot.
Golf's Governing Bodies and Golfing Associations are driving toward sustainable management and maintenance of golf courses. The original aim was for every course to achieve an ISO 14001 compliant Environmental Management System (EMS).
More recently, golf-specific organisations such as the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf have shown tremendous leadership, refining sustainability fundamentals for our sport. Golf clubs worldwide can now get more compatible advice, aim for more meaningful targets and achieve more relevant certification.
The environmental cost of divots has flown beneath the radar. But the research shows our divots equate not to molehills, but to mountains.
"I only take a few divots a round. How can that be an environmental concern?"
"An average golfer will take 30 divots a round. If you multiply that by 200 rounds a day on a busy course, that adds up to a frightening amount of divots which are hard to keep on top of."
— Course Director, Turnberry Golf Club, host of the Open Championship
Scotland by the numbers
- 550 golf courses
- 93 rounds per course, per day on average
- 357 playable days a year (KPMG Golf Sector report)
- 30 divots per round
That adds up to a staggering 550 million divots in Scottish turf every year. Fortunately, many courses mandate "preferred lie" or "winter rules" to stop irreparable damage after wet weather, during droughts or over the winter. Our aim is to halve the damage, and affect our wonderful game as little as contemporary engineering permits.
What does a divot cost?
The short answer is sand and a little tender loving care. The long answer is sand infused with:
- chemical fertiliser and seed
- topsoil (sometimes green dye)
- water, labour, energy and equipment
Add the possible harm these chemicals cause to underlying water tables and surrounding environs, and you have the real sustainability cost of our divots.
What is the local environmental cost?
Each divot needs at least 100 grams of blended fill and, over its regrowth cycle, around 250ml of extra water. For Scotland alone that means every year:
- around 55,000 tonnes of blended fill
- around 137 megalitres of water
Scotland doesn't need the water, but think what the 450 courses in Texas might use. And beyond the resources and labour, think of the carbon footprint of trucking fill to every region, county, club and course.
And the world environment?
Scotland represents just 1.35% of golf worldwide. Multiply the figures above by 74 and you'll get a good idea of what divots do every year to our sport's carbon footprint, the world's water resources, water tables, natural habitats and ecosystems.
Our objective is to provide solutions that support golf's drive to reduce this impact, while enriching the game for players. After all, we're golfers too!
What can I do?
- Replace your divots with real TLC. Before reaching for the fill bucket, find the turf and fit it back into the hole. You'll need less fill.
- Repair other golfers' divots as you pass. The turf has a better chance of recovering naturally, with less water and fill.
- Where crows flip replaced divots (as the canny Scottish crows do), use fill only.
- Back a winter mat rule. In winter, grass roots can't recover from damage. That's why more and more forward-thinking clubs mandate portable golf mats in the colder months.
Why not encourage your club to consider a turf protector? If you choose the Smart Mat, the players and greenkeeper may even thank you for it.
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