A Grassroots win: a nine-hole and 36-hole course top Golf Digest/GCSAA Awards

Golf Digest, May, 2003 by Ron Whitten

An environmentally friendly golf course is not a pocketbook issue. That was demonstrated by the 2002 Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards, selected by an independent panel of judges and sponsored by Golf Digest and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Patrick A. Blum, the National Public Course and overall winner, maintains a nine-hole daily-fee on $27,500 annually. He has transformed Colonial Acres Golf Club in Glenmont, N.Y., from a lifeless green golf pasture into a nature showcase where deer, fox and turkey routinely roam. Blum has only 13 acres of maintained turf, on which he uses mostly organic fertilizers and low-toxic pesticides. He irrigates three acres of grass using water from collected rain and snow runoff.

A similar program is working at the 36-hole Club at Mediterra in Naples, Fla. Scott Whorrall, the National Private Course winner, has a seven-figure annual budget, some of which goes to preserving wetlands, re-establishing forested areas and planting natural vegetation that attracts wildlife. The club now sponsors nature and bird-watching tours for nonmembers and school children.

"I've encouraged my members to not be obsessed with the color green," Whorrall says. "Usually, the turf plays better when it's a little off-color. It's drier and firmer."

The International winner is Pablo Cornejo Robinson, superintendent at Las Brisas de Chicureo Golf Club in Colina, Chile. With few national environmental regulations in place, Cornejo has implemented a maintenance program that emphasizes natural harmony at the club.

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* The GCSAA wants every course to convert 10 acres of land into native wildlife habitat within 10 years. They suggest "no-mow" areas that are away from normal play.

* At ArborLinks Course in Nebraska, environmentalist Max Schnepf narrates the yardage book explaining how each hole is groomed to be nature-friendly.

* Overwatering is bad, but superintendent Tim Hiers of Old Collier Golf Club in Florida says really brown grass is unhealthy and can take 10 times as much water to recover.