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Golf

Is it as ‘green’ as it looks?

Well, no.

Golf courses are fed with staggering amounts of water, needed to quench the thirst of the ‘designer’ non-native grass species that are commonly used. They are often developed on important ecosystems, like wetlands and rainforests, and are heavily doused with toxic pesticides which leach into the surrounding area. What’s more, this land is sometimes forcibly taken from more productive owners, such as farmers.

Environment

In the tourism industry, water is to the golf course what snow is to the ski slope. If there is not enough rainfall, then water has to be supplied in other ways. This causes serious changes in the natural water cycle and harms local flora and fauna. The numbers tell the real story. In 2004, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 cubic meters of water per hectare were pumped out of freshwater supplies to keep golf courses green in south-east Spain. At this rate, the water used on one golf course could supply a town of 12,000 inhabitants with enough water for a whole year.

Golf courses require extraordinary amounts of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and artificial colouring agents, which poison the soil and wildlife, and pose a risk to human health. Journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot cites academic studies that found that an 18-hole course requires seven times more chemical treatments per hectare than industrial farming and that golf course superintendents suffer higher rates of some cancers, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which has been linked with exposure to pesticides (Playing in the Rough, Guardian, 16/10/2007).

Human rights

Around the world, land rights and the health of the environment are frequently violated in the name of golf tourism developments, often with the complicity or wilful ignorance of local governments.

Bali

Agung Wardana is a veteran Indonesian environmental activist and Director of the Indonesian Forum on Environment (WALHI). He notes that while the average Balinese golf course uses 3 million litres of water per day, the average Balinese person uses only 200 litres. Expanding luxury tourism development in Bali has resulted in higher taxes, forcing farmers to sell their land: up to 1000 hectares of productive agricultural land is converted to non-agricultural purposes, including golf courses, every year. Wardana says, “If the current situation is left to fester, that will be the equivalent of Bali committing suicide. If Bali is short of water, who will want to visit?” (Tourism as Villian in Bali’s Environmental Degradation, Bali Discovery, 17/05/2009).

Malta

Martin Galea de Giovanni, Coordinator of Friends of the Earth Malta, expresses his frustration at “battling one golf course proposal after another, most of them planned for areas of agricultural importance or scenic beauty.” Agricultural land in Malta is already scarce and can only feed 17% of the population. Friends of the Earth’s campaign, “Agriculture, Not Golf”, is opposing a new 18-hole golf course, country club and luxury hotel development that will deprive 98 farmers of their livelihoods while sucking up the same amount of water as 11,000 Maltese every year. Up against powerful tourism industry interests however, Galea de Giovanni acknowledges they have an uphill battle: “Developers have been known to threaten farmers in order to persuade them to sell their agricultural land and the government has relied on decisions made by planning bodies with heavy input from the tourism industry and no participation by environmentalists” (Friends of the Earth International, 2009).

The Philippines

For the 7,000 peasants and fishermen in Hacienda Looc in the Philippines, resisting golf developments became quite literally a matter of life and death. Jen Schradie and Matt Devries’ 1999 documentary The Golf War followed the ‘Break Free’ movement, created by Hacienda Looc villagers to challenge the development of four championship golf courses on their ancestral lands. The Philippines government deployed the military and police, and the golf course developers hired paramilitary personnel to disrupt the villagers’ resistance: three of Break Free’s leaders were shot dead. The ensuing political embarrassment meant that the golf course plans were scuttled, but the villagers have spent the past decade fighting off other developments in the Philippines courts (Todd Pitock, The Smart Set, Drexel University, 03/10/2008).

Golf global

However, it’s not only countries in the developing world that are being hit by the reckless and unsustainable expansion of golf tourism. According to journalist Leo Hickman, the UK has one of the highest golf course densities in the world (The Final Call, 2008). Hickman reported that some 2,600 golf courses cover 0.6 percent of the land, comprising a 40 percent increase in the past thirty years. Local people in Aberdeenshire, Scotland have recently lost their battle to protect the ecologically diverse land and wildlife of Balmedie from being replaced with mono-cultured golf lawns. Multi-billionaire Donald Trump plans to build ‘the world’s greatest golf resort’ on the fragile sand dunes. Local environmentalists say that the coastal area’s natural defence system against storms and flooding will be swept away. Trump hopes to quadruple the current 7,000 visitors to the area, with the majority (65%) of the golfers arriving by air from the USA. This Scottish government has now approved the expansion of Aberdeen airport to cope with the extra passengers. Plane Stupid activist, Jonny Agnew, expressed anger at a protest against airport’s expansion in March 2009: “Our generation’s future is vanishing so that people like Donald Trump and his super-rich friends can jet into Aberdeen for a round of golf.”

Greening golf?

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reports: ‘Currently, national classifications do not permit identification of golf courses to the tourism sector’. In other, words golf is considered as a ‘private sector leisure activity’. This means that the vast quantities of water consumed by golf courses and the impacts of the chemicals used to treat them are often not monitored or controlled at a national level. In a recent pilot study, Water and Tourism 2009, Eurostat suggests that reclassifying golf under the tourism sector would better enable water-scarce countries to set limits of the number of golf courses, to control their annual water consumption and monitor sources of water as well as the types and amounts of pesticides that are used.

It is also vital to raise awareness of golf’s negative impacts amongst golf players themselves. The Golf Environment Organisation – a not-for-profit group that promotes environmental sustainability in golf – advises enthusiasts to “golf locally!” Players should enquire about the measures being taken to protect the environment by golf courses, and consider choosing courses that publicly advertise their environmental stewardship. Without golfers there would be no golf. So, as with all tourists, golfers have enormous power to pressure the industry for positive change.

Read about Tourism Concern's past campaign in support of World No Golf Day