What Can I Do To Make The Future of Golf Greener?

In this, the inaugural Sustainable Golf Week, we consider what you can do as a golfer to make the game’s future greener.

future of golf
Take your own water bottle
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Fergus Bisset
By
published

Starting Monday 3 October Sustainable Golf Week, hosted by the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, is putting the spotlight on the requirement for sustainability within golf. It’s a hugely important subject and something that the governing bodies, the main professional Tours and golfing facilities around the world are rightly taking extremely seriously. But sustainability is not just something for the powers that be to be concerned with. Each of us can do our bit. The time for action is not somewhere in the next 10 years, the time is now. We need to act to secure a healthy, sustainable future for the game we love.

Here below, we consider what each of us can do as golfers to make the game greener.

Follow the Scorecard – Front 9

future of golf

(Image credit: GEO Foundation)

The GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf has put together a handy scorecard for golfers to follow to see how sustainable their approach to the game is currently, and where it can be improved. The front nine can be seen above.

There’s so much of it that's so simple to do, like taking your own water bottle or sharing a lift to the course. Other challenges may require a little more investment of time, like volunteering for a project of committee. But if all of us do what we can, where we can, a difference can be made.

Back 9

future of golf

(Image credit: GEO Foundation)

Carrying onto the back nine of sustainable tips for golfers, there are further easy wins, like using bamboo tees and considering not taking a scorecard. But one of the most impactful things you can do as an individual is simply to talk about sustainability –  Just mention it at the club, ask the question on the club’s approach to sustainability. The more people who show an interest in the environment and the community, the more traction projects and ideas will have.

Through Sustainable Golf Week, the focus will be on different aspects of sustainability within golf. Here’s the schedule:

Monday 3rd: Teeing off - Our Biggest Team Challenge

Tuesday 4th: Golf Courses of the Future

Wednesday 5th: Big and Visible – The Professional Game

Thursday 6th: Golf, Cities and Land

Friday 7th: Moving Day

Saturday 8th: Highlights of the Week

Sunday 9th: Driving Further

Visit Sustainable Golf Week and GEO Foundation to find out more.

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.

He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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