"A great way to enhance the game, make it cool again and bring back some of the interest among younger people is to make golf the greenest sport in an environmental sense."

Reading Roger Schiffman's November Golf Digest interview with Tom Friedman, I couldn't help but think that (A) Friedman absolutely hits a home run, and (B) how too many folks in golf will pinch their necks as his insights fly right over their heads, all because they can't understand why the model for golf they crafted is unsustainable and, as Friedman notes, will not sit with the coveted 18-34 year olds.

Golf could do a lot more. We're finally getting our arms around hybrid cars -- well, what would a hybrid golf course look like? Every course in America should strive to be Prius Country Club. There is no reason, for instance, that a new clubhouse should not aim to be a LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] building. If you have solar-powered carts, then why not a solar-powered clubhouse? A golf course should aspire to generate as much energy as it consumes -- golf should be leading the way toward energy net zero. The future is net zero. Take wind turbines. Now that states and the stimulus bill are giving tax credits for wind-driven and solar energy, wind energy makes sense for certain golf courses. Some courses would be great potential wind farms.

Finally, a use for The Classic Club. Now seriously, his point on energy is key and it should constantly be mentioned just how energy intensive irrigation systems are. And the less water used, the less energy used.

Love this too...

Courses should also strive to be carbon positive -- by measuring everything, a course could come up with its carbon footprint. Every golf course should have its carbon rating on the scorecard, alongside its Course Rating, Slope, par and yardage.

Q: How could a course manager go about doing that?

A: You can get an assessment from any number of environmental consulting firms. But here's where the USGA could help: Just as it sets the rules and equipment standards,

Well...sometimes and selectively...continue...

it should be setting environmental standards. It could create a new division, hire its own scientists, create its own metrics, and for a fee -- it could be a money-making operation -- it would conduct an environmental audit for a course on an annual basis and give it a rating. Golf courses and resorts would welcome that seal of approval, and it could start a trend. The USGA has a huge role and responsibility. It would set the standard, for the sake of preserving the game.

This is a great idea with an effective, engaged, organized, energized and healthy USGA. I'm not sure those are words that come to mind with today's version of the organization.

Q: But how would these things help the golf industry, which is at best stagnant right now?

A: Suppose you can say: "Hey, our club is energy net zero, carbon positive, and it's environmentally sustainable. The club next door is an environmental wasteland." Well, you're going to get a lot more people, especially young people, who want to join your club. Just as LEED buildings get higher rents today and attract more people, so environmentally responsible courses will have a competitive advantage.

I think he's spot on here...but just a few years ahead of his time. Golf's approach and understanding of where the world is headed typically is way behind other sectors in every way. Just look at the Internet.

Q: Golf is such a small part of the overall challenge facing Planet Earth. How much impact can golf courses really have environmentally? Are we just kidding ourselves?

A: Every little bit helps. Golf courses have great potential to be what I call "ecosystems for innovation." For example, does your golf club really need to have gas-powered carts when there are solar-powered ones available? Have you done the math? Sebonack Golf Club on Long Island did and found solar would be cheaper. Now, Sebonack by itself isn't going to affect the amount of CO² in the atmosphere, but when someone sees Sebonack's solar carts, and they order a fleet of solar carts, what happens? The price of solar carts comes down. Then maybe the public course that couldn't afford them before can afford them now. The whole game changes. The thing you have to remember is, oil and gas are commodities, and the more we use them the more the price goes up, like any commodity. Solar, wind -- they are technologies, so the more you use them, the more the price goes down.

It's time for the question I've most wanted to hear Friedman talk about, since he plays a lot of golf at a manicured Fazio course.

Q: One obstacle to golf becoming more environmentally responsible is the perception of golfers that their course needs to look like Augusta National, with wall-to-wall, uniform-green fairways and rough. Should we be trying to change that image?

A: We have to change that image. I don't fault Augusta. Every sport needs its temple, its cathedral. But if everyone copies Augusta and makes their course longer, tighter, softer and more carpeted, it will increase golf's environmental footprint. It takes more water and fertilizer and mowers.

Another unfortunate reminder that the Golf Digest panel rates it the #1 course in America.

Here's where I fear he's a bit ahead of his time, though it's never too early to start planting this thought with those who want to see golf have a future.

Many of us who grew up playing golf know that our kids aren't doing it. A great way to enhance the game, make it cool again and bring back some of the interest among younger people is to make golf the greenest sport in an environmental sense. Every course's greenkeeper should think of himself or herself as the greenkeeper: responsible for preserving the green, not just the greens.

And this is really the key takeaway that just contines to perplex me about climate change resisters...

And by the way, what if we're wrong and there is no climate change? Well, by doing everything possible to address it, we will still use less water, stimulate new energy savings and, in time, money-saving technologies, enjoy cleaner air, and preserve more forests and trees and animals.

Your golf course and its wider environment will be more sustainable and attractive. Your members will be healthier and feel better about their game's impact on the environment. Tell me what the downside is.

It's not just win, win. It's win, win, win, win, win, OK?

Comments

[Doc | bss.com]

I'd disagree. Sure, making things more green and/or efficient is nice, but it has nothing to do with why 18-34 year olds don't play gold as much as they should. When I'm trying to coordinate a round with friends, the impediment has never been "no, the courses around here aren't net zero", the issue is always "not sure how I can fit 4+ hours into my schedule"

[The O]

I'm all for enviornmental friendliness, but if I had a dollar for every person who said they were going to play a ball out of a hazard deemed "enviornmental", I could buy a course. The typical response is "if I can see it, I can play it. That's the rules." (Note, these may or may not be the local rules in effect.) Everyone loves the environment until it costs you a penalty shot.

[the ghost of pj boatwright]

carbon positive?

wtf

[Former S&T Convert]

How many times have I walked off a green and said "Only thing missing is a windmill"

[RM]

I like a lot of what he says, especially about not following Augusta's example. But he lost me with "preserve more forests and trees." Preservation = no use. Conservation = wise use. Everyone should be reminded that a healthy forest is no accident. Properly managed forests certainly produce economic advantages. They are financially productive for the local and broader economies, but they are also healthier and reduce the likelihood of wildfires, insects and disease. This is a sustainable industry, so go ahead and print this out, make copies for your friends. They'll grow more trees and make more paper!

[Greg]

When you live in the Midwest and five months out of the year you are surrounded by mostly dull colors, vibrant green fairways become very appealing to the eye.

[Smitty]

I don't know if golf needs a solar-panelled clubhouse or carts, wind turbines or course carbon ratings, LEED standards or carbon credits--I mean, when I play, I just want to enjoy myself, not think about all that stuff! However, why not just use less water, toss in some browns/reds into the course scenery, encourage walking, extoll the virtues of urban greenspace/habitat, and let golf sell itself to the masses as being not only beneficial to man, flora, & fauna, but as a great way to enjoy the Earth as well.

[Tighthead]

The O:

Lots of environmental hazards seem pretty indistinct to me, and look like they are just in place to mollify some zoning types - i.e. "the approved course will have 12 acres of environmentally protected zones". That sort of deal. Makes everyone look good, but that protected area is just a field or a forest.

[smails]

"...Sebonack Golf Club on Long Island did and found solar would be cheaper. "

Horse---. show me the "math" its not cheaper, its "cool"--like Fonzie cool.

Sebonack is a monument to how much something can cost when all the developer tells the environmentalists is "yes". its great, but the market for $500,000 initiation fees, $20,000 annual duses courses is, somewhat, limited.

Friedman is all buzzwords, no substance. "lets do the math--windmillswould be great"--so would a date with Lady Gaga.

[Boston Golfer]

Here's an idea that will generate youth interest
and guarantee growth in the game: 9 holes.

Dads and moms, get out and play 9 with your
sons and daughters, it's that simple. Make team
competitions, teach them wolf, 3's, horse.
Finchem and Co. may scour the earth for answers,
but the answer lies with the kids themselves.

[royalandancientdbag]

"Arnold Schwarzenegger said it best: "Your son is sick. Ninety-eight doctors give you one diagnosis, two doctors give you another. Who are you going to go with?" Well, why would it be the conservative position to go with the two? That's not conservative, that's crazy."

Wow, I thought the NASA data from their ocean probes indicated a cooling of the seas in the last 7 - 8 years (I am too lazy to look up the exact numbers, I simply read it a few month ago). Now, there is conflicting information out there regarding the current and future climate and what to do about it, but to say that I am crazy unless I drink the koolaid and ignore any info that doesn't fit his world view is not very........ progressive.

Plus, nice 'stach, gonna catch that new Urban Cowboy movie later, Tom?

[Ian Andrew]

I remember a couple of years back there was a suggestion that a golf course was actually a carbon sink and that golf courses could potentially sell carbon credits providing a shot in the arm for the golf industry. After some research and some rudimentary investigations it was discovered that it was hard to overcome the carbon footprint of “just” the maintenance equipment and the limited use of fertilizer (the energy used to create fertilizer and pesticide is very high – not to mention the trucking etc. etc.). I can tell from my own research that carbon neutral golf is a dream.

I think we also need to understand what the implications of what we are recommending. I read about wind turbines and solar powered carts. Let’s take the Prius. It has a nickel cadmium battery – go look at the carbon footprint of that. Do a comparison with a high mileage compact and then tell me if you still think a hybrid is a better alternative.

We had a push here locally for electric carts instead of gas carts. The irony is that we rely on coal to make up the shortfall in our electrical system. You can say that all those carts are actually coal powered by default. We just need to actually understand each decision and make the best ones – and not the politically correct ones.

I completely agree with the idea of having a more environmentally friendly approach to golf. But we should be talking about sustainable ecosystems, solutions that reduce water and a move to lower inputs first. This is where we can have the greatest environmental impact. And it all starts with lowering our maintenance expectations.

Regards,

Ian Andrew

[John C]

Boy, people are complaining about GW salespeople in the other linked story but this guy is the biggest salesperson there is... what he's selling is the biggest farce of this new century.

[vwgolfer]

Am all for being green, but this guy is such a toolhead. How about this Tom, growing the game for young people- a place like Sebonack should be a public course or better yet not exist at all and just be open space.(If you really want to be green). No sport can grow if your model is a $500,000 membership fee with Solar powered carts. How about no carts and a caddy program for local kids who need a job? That could get them interested at a young age and give them something to do instead of sitting around wasting electricity at home with their video games and that blogging stuff.

[JSS]

Most people don't know how much electricty golf courses use. There are a number of golf courses that use over $250,000 each year with the average course using over $5,000 per month. If you take that savings by generating your own with wind or power, you can create a much better playing experience for the players. Sadly, most operators when told they need to cut expenses only cut labor.

[smails]

i just love these conversations... "Sadly, most operators when told they need to cut expenses only cut labor."

Uhh, where do we get the money to buy the wind mills? if its debt, where do we get the money to pay the interest expense, if its equity, who puts it up? the same guy who is losing money on the course?

the guy is cutting labor because he is running out of money. and dont tell me the "carbon foot print:" of a golf course is larger than tract homes on 150 acres--unless its a muni, thats what the landowner is going to try to do if he cant make money in golf

Carbon credits, foot print, LEED building, Prius Country Club---its all lingo out of a woody allen movie from the 70s

[The O]

@tighthead, exactly my point. I can think of, for instance, a par 3 at a course in San Diego, where, in front of the green is a "native area" similar to the stuff people see off the course at Torrey Pines. But its staked as an environmental area. People go into it all the time anyway. The "local rules" say that you can't enter these areas, but does not spell out any penalty for doing so, so people do it all the time (not grounding their clubs because its still a lateral hazard). Presumably, when they hold tournaments there, they provide more detail and a DQ penalty. I suppose that the course could throw people off, and for some reason I think there are some states/cities that have criminal or civil penalties for venturing into these types of areas, but by and large it does more to make golfers hate the enviornment and conservation than promote Friedman's Utopian ideas. (Of course, it is San Diego, which is about as conservative as it gets.)

The way to do this correctly is surround the course with environemental areas, like OB - and stake it OB.

[The Walking Golfer]

Why don't we start by getting people out of carts and walking so they can improve their golfing experience and reap the fitness benefits.

Solar carts? How about only a small number of carts at a course?

The nine hole course idea is fantastic - that is a great way to get kids back into the game.

Is there such thing as an affordable caddie program? That is another great way to get kids playing (as mentioned).

Many of these ideas might be applicable to "new projects" but the majority of clubs/courses in America will never have the cash flow.

[Arthur Epps]

Friedman is like a pigeon flying over head, dropping his crap all over, and then flying away. What an absolute ass!

[Warren]

Friedman, give that head a shake. It's over.

[royalandancientdbag]

Actually, I occasionally play a course that does not water its fairways in the summer. The ball rolls forever. Once you average over 300 off the tee (because of the concrete fairways) you can actually hear the brass clank as you walk the hole. You know it is not real, but you just do not care.

Like any real man, I am willing to cut down a 500 year old redwood for a breakfast fire (or just for fun), but if you wanna stop watering the fairways, be my guest.

[CBell]

Man, this post brings insects out of the woodwork. Whether or not you believe in global warming, how can anyone prefer petro energy to renewable energy?

[HybridGolfer]

Sorry to wake you up, but there already are "Hybrid Golf Courses" & "Hybrid Golf Balls" now being played across the country. While you have been promoting the fading virtues of the reconstituted full-sized golf course, we have been working on golf of a more practical & sustainable level. Same game...just quicker play, less frustration & more fun...full-par golf!
Viisit our website for a glimpse of the future golf game.