Every once in a blue moon, I find myself hacking my way through a round of golf, and what keeps me coming back is my score (kidding, of course). Actually, it’s the environment. My favorite play ground is in the mountains, teeing off at around 4 in the afternoon because the light is so amazing as it nears sunset. As beautiful a setting as it may be and as much as I enjoy the game, I can’t help but feel some eco guilt about how un-eco friendly most golf courses are.
Recently, I received a press release about Palm Desert’s city-owned Desert Willow Golf Resort, with two eco smart, championship courses — Firecliff and Mountain View — so I had to take a peek, (online).
Firecliff was recently selected by Golf Digest as one of “The Places to Play” – one of only three courses in California and one of the top 50 in the U.S. to receive this designation, (10th hole above).
Desert Willow was featured on the cover of Smithsonian magazine as well as in National Geographic Traveler for its courses’ ecosmart design and construction. Both the 7,056-yard Firecliff course and the 6,913-yard Mountain View were created by nationally recognized designer Michael Hurdzan, (Golf Course Architect of the Year).
As mentioned in the Smithsonian, Hurdzan, “has created a layout with enough championship style to attract a major PGA tournament and designed a course that looks as if it truly is part of this desert environment.”
With a doctorate in plant physiology, Hurdzan designs both upscale private courses and low-cost public facilities, noting, “What wasn’t widely known is that the industry has put an incredible amount of money and effort into research on turf grasses that require little or no pesticides, and which need less water. Environmentalists were surprised by the amount of research the United States Golf Association (USGA) has put into developing turf grasses, into drainage systems that minimize runoff and in creating habitats that attract wildlife.”
Desert Willow infuses desert landscapes and indigenous plants, and relies on reclaimed water to keep the fairways green. This reduces the burden on the local sanitation facility, and helps the courses because reclaimed water contains nutrients that benefit turf growth. The design also includes vast areas of land without turf; some are played as waste bunkers and others are covered with decomposed granite crushed into tiny pebbles, which is spread over hills to cut down on blowing sand and natural erosion.
My next visit to Palm Desert, I hope to book a tee time @ www.desertwillow.com.
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Be it an “eco smart” golf course or not, it’s still a golf course. Golfing is one of the largest resource-hogging sports in the world. Whether Desert Willow advertises native plants or reclaimed water, there still is a a great demand to keep that greenway perfectly green, which requires tons of fertilizer, which then drains off and pollutes the waters that are being reclaimed at locations down the line. Imagine what else could be done with so much land and so much nitrogen and so much work to keep it up.
Yes, these are some of the very reasons I’m filled with eco guilt when I play. There’s certainly room for much improvement in “greening the greens” everywhere, but at least DW has taken some steps in the right direction. Realistically, I don’t think golf courses are going away anytime soon so they really do need to become more ecologically sound.
This reduces the burden on the local sanitation facility, and helps the courses because reclaimed water contains nutrients that benefit turf growth.
Imagine what else could be done with so much land and so much nitrogen and so much work to keep it up.
Golf Courses are much more efficient at maintaining their turf than any residential or municipal entity. There is very little fertilizer run-off from a golf course and a lot of courses make every effort to capture even that. You so called environmentalists make these outrageous calims with no science to back any of it up. Golf Courses take up lots of space but they provide recreation for thousnads of people, they provide habitat for thousands of animals and most of all, they take up room that would otherwise be roads and houses.