A street of homes, the Intracoastal Waterway, an estuary and an exclusive island separate Eagle Point Golf Club’s more than 200 acres from the Atlantic Ocean. Besides the southeast corner of the grounds, where the ninth hole parallels the Intracoastal, Eagle Point is more akin to a rolling and selectively wooded inland championship golf course than a site one mile from an ocean.

While it can’t be seen from the polished fairways and greens, the Atlantic factors into nearly every decision superintendent Sean Anderson and his team make. A Tom Fazio design, Eagle Point opened in 2000 and returned Wilmington, North Carolina, to the national golf scene by hosting the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship in 2017. Anderson arrived on New Year’s Day 2019, as the club was in the final phases of repairing damage caused by Hurricane Florence.

Weather swings are a big part of the coastal golf story, a reality Anderson experienced during his 13 years as superintendent at Card Sound Golf Club in the Florida Keys. His first two years at Eagle Point included two storms requiring significant cleanup efforts: Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and Hurricane Isaias in 2020. How to limit damage caused by mega-storms and assessing course infrastructure in the back nine of its life cycle are critical parts of Anderson’s long-term agenda.

“It has endured some pretty good hurricanes over the last couple of years,” Anderson says. “We have had some pretty extensive tree and landscape damage. With this club being 20 years old and the weather-related issues we’ve had — and the irrigation system is 20 years old — I feel my responsibility and role with the club right now is to determine how we ensure the next 20 years of success.”

Proximity to the ocean affects Eagle Point in non-weather ways. Little Creek and Middle Sound Estuary border the course and provide separation between inland development — most of which has occurred within the past 20 years — and the ocean. Further protection for runoff from impervious surfaces comes in the form of a human-created pond surrounding the 9-hole par-3 course. A pump system recycling water from low to high areas and into Fazio-designed water features add another buffer between developed and environmentally sensitive areas. Moving more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt during construction produced uncharacteristic topography for a Lowcountry setting.

Eagle Point has evolved from a club with significant spring and fall play into a summer haven for golf enthusiasts and beachgoers. The evolution of member usage altered the agronomics and greens were converted from bentgrass to G12 Bermudagrass following the 2017 Wells Fargo. The 150 acres of maintained turf also includes 60 acres of Tifsport Bermudagrass fairways, approaches and tees on the championship and par-3 courses.

The club has invested in tools to help its turf team maintain the abundance of short grass. Eagle Point was an early adopter of GPS-guided spraying technology, becoming one of the first Southeast facilities to incorporate the Toro Multi Pro GeoLink GPS Sprayer into its agronomic programs. The Multi Pro with GeoLink proved successful at treating the Tifsport surfaces without overlapping or encroaching into sensitive areas for multiple years before Anderson’s arrival. Having a course already mapped and extensive digital spray records available via the GeoLink system allowed Anderson to immediately make confident decisions while learning a new property that must coexist with natural surroundings.

“They were early adopters and we have continued that trend,” Anderson says. “We’re not overlapping and we’re getting that pinpoint accuracy. You can define all your areas. If you’re doing fairway applications, then you’re just spraying the fairways and there’s a reduction from not overspraying in non-targeted areas. You’re not spraying 10 feet into your roughs.”

Quantifying input reductions is tricky, because Anderson has never treated Eagle Point’s fairways, approaches and tees with a conventional sprayer. Like most courses, Eagle Point closely managed labor during the early stages of the pandemic, so Anderson used the Multi Pro on greens instead of a walk-behind sprayer for a period last spring.

“There were so many unknowns and just organizing and coordinating tasks was a little bit challenging,” he says. “We would go in and use the GPS sprayer on greens. We got comfortable with it and we did find we were about 10 percent less on square footage using our GPS sprayer because we weren’t spraying into collars.”

Eagle Point’s use of emerging technology extends into its mowing program. The club’s fleet includes six Toro Reelmaster 5010-H fairway mowers, which utilize a 24.8 hp diesel engine operating in conjunction with a self-recharging 48-volt battery pack. The mower features a hybrid system, called PowerMatch, designed to coordinate the power generated with the required cutting conditions. Eagle Point also has five Greensmaster TriFlex 3320 mowers, which are used for maintaining approaches, verticutting and occasionally mowing greens.

“I have tried to adopt those types of mowers anywhere I can,” Anderson says. “The main reason is the hydraulic leaks with the older technology. You get scarred up pretty good when you get a nice hydraulic leak. We’re trying to eliminate all the hydraulic leak points, which is huge for a presentation and aesthetic standpoint on a golf course.”

Less hydraulics and noise are making an already peaceful place even more serene. Asked where he goes to absorb Eagle Point scenes, Anderson initially refers to the wooded southwest edge of the property. But selecting just one peaceful spot at Eagle Point is like forcing a healthy eater to declare a favorite vegetable. “This golf property is very scenic and there are numerous spots on this property where you just step back and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a nice office to work in,’” Anderson says.

The office supports pleasant visitors. Marshes and waterways as neighbors lead to interactions with myriad wildlife, ranging from blue herons to snapping turtles. The course’s name — and Bald Eagle Lane address — are fitting, because eagles are spotted above the grounds.

Eagle Point’s footprint includes 14 acres of native areas consisting of muhly grass, spartina patens and cordgrass. The native areas contrast the Bermudagrass hues and monochromes of 25 acres of tidy pine straw.

A western Washington native whose career has included stops in Colorado, Germany, New York and Florida, Anderson is relishing the blend of high-level maintenance and escapism Eagle Point provides.

“It’s a coastal property and you have a couple of holes on the marshes where you get that typical Lowcountry feel,” Anderson says. “But when you get to the middle and other parts of the golf course, you almost feel like you’re more in Atlanta, Georgia, with the undulation and elevation. It’s got a uniqueness to it.”

Chris Flick, director of grounds operations at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in suburban Chicago, shares inspiring ecological practices that extend beyond turf. “I’m a firm believer that a golf course needs to be more than a golf course,” Flick says. At Cog Hill, community relationships are forging ahead and there is a culture for stewardship. While golf and the earth hold hands, fescue and bluegrass mix rough, and bentgrass tees, greens and fairways are maintained with immaculate care for public play.

Cog Hill has four courses, including Dubsdread, where the record is a 62 owned by Tiger Woods. This championship layout witnessed several BMW Championships and numerous other PGA Tour and USGA events, including the Western Open. The facility jives with a Toptracer Range, lessons, junior programs, family golf nights, and social events. A “Growing Green” section on the website details phenomenal environmental accomplishments.

How to start or continue the momentum at your course? Blue-sky happy thoughts work best.

Thinking environmentally

“It’s difficult at times to justify higher costs for an environmental project that the courses will be fine without,” Flick says, “but caring for the environment and the courses is a rewarding challenge.” People notice and appreciate environmental efforts, and tangible results attract customers and members, create positive community attention and can interest seasonal workers.

“We advertise what we’re doing and use visual clues to get people involved,” Flick says. Celebrating Earth Day, creating opportunities for volunteer participation, property-wide recycling, communicating lower chemical/turf inputs and working the numbers helps people connect with an environmental focus. Sharing positive numbers is the most black-and-white way to show the value of environmental efforts. Whether it’s a related decrease in expenses, better water quality figures or increased bird egg counts, numbers make an impact.

Reading material can be a powerful ally, from environmental books for adults and kids sold in the pro shop to relevant articles left near the coffee machine. Biodegradable tees can be promoted. Share your environmental position on Twitter and social media, post information on the website, host school groups for science lessons, and “bring people on the property when it’s not necessarily for golf,” Flick says. “That’s one of our big goals, to introduce people to what we’re doing and show them how to help.”

Water management

There are some big-budget ways to improve water management. An irrigation audit and a new irrigation system will be the most precise and thorough way to evaluate and maximize water efficiency. A course renovation can ensure proper drainage and movement. Maybe it’s time for a different kind of grass. Blue-sky thinking indeed.

Natural algal control will start this year at Cog Hill with barley straw and sterile grass carp helping filter the ponds. Irrigation inputs have been nearly halved through biostimulants and organic plant protectants, which work to provide strong and healthy plants, reduce transpiration and increase stress tolerance.

“The biggest thing we have done for water management is reduce our rough acreage,” Flick says. The team also eliminated extra tees on two courses and worked with ownership to decrease spraying and watering.

“We’ve audited our systems to ensure that the water we do use is efficient and we hand water quite a bit,” says Flick, noting how useful moisture meters are in ensuring only necessary water is used.

Cog Hill is adding a bioswale near the maintenance facility to help filter and clean the rinsate from the equipment washing station. Partially funded by a grant from The FairWays Foundation, research was conducted involving which plants would be most effective while being functional and aesthetically pleasing. Rain barrels throughout the property are a simple idea. Water management takes constant thoughtfulness, and regular readings on property water sources will ensure the water is clean.

Native areas

Transforming 100 acres of rough into native areas has changed more than mowing and irrigation. “It started by just letting it grow,” Flick says. “This is an oak-heavy property and we’re aiming for prairie restoration and oak-savannahs like there used to be.” Reducing maintained acreage has also helped reduce synthetic inputs of pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. There has been a special focus on fungicide reduction. Prescribed burning also helps build native areas and “we can do that on a small scale.”

Cog Hill also participates in the Monarchs in the Rough program, starting with half an acre about three years ago and propagating milkweed and nectar-producing flowers to more areas throughout the property. Pollinator habitats improve every year and larvae develop and colorfully fly away. Functionality is the focus and other forms of wildlife are showing up for the party.

Wildlife management

“What has impacted wildlife the most are the no-mow areas, just creating habitat and a food source for them,” Flick says. “We have seen a huge increase,” in variety and numbers. The influx contributes to a different feel on the course, adding to the game’s joys (and ensuring errant shots aren’t the only wild things).

“Working with a high school class, we constructed bluebird and bat houses,” Flick says. “The houses feature engraved logos for both the high school and Cog Hill,” and they’re a visible source of pride. The students become curious and comfortable on site and the functionality of the property grows. The bird houses are watched by a group of birding golfers who track nests and eggs.

Cog Hill sports more than a dozen beehives. Brush piles for birds, squirrels, rabbits and more only require stacking a few logs and branches. They provide shelter where there is little ground cover, and, opposed to burning, have the added benefit of releasing carbon into the air slowly as they decay.

Facilities and grounds

There is always room for improvement. The preceision of GPS sprayers can be helpful in dispersing product at the rate and locations needed, and biodiesel offers potential. Recycled concrete aggregate can be used for cart path construction.

Cog Hill has a sustainability expert, Angelica Carmen, and her work is efficient, economical and essential to the ethos of Cog Hill. “She is focused on environmental initiatives and she makes sure they are implemented,” Flick says. Carmen networks for research and to build relationships, considers all aspects of the property, creates exciting public initiatives and does hands-on work that otherwise may be impossible.

“My favorite project has been her construction of the farm. It’s the perfect, tangible example of what I wanted for Cog Hill,” Flick says. Fairway Farms and Apiary started with Flick’s idea to “have a little vegetable garden.” The farm hosts tours and provides up to 3,000 pounds of produce annually for the restaurant. A berry patch, a pumpkin patch and orchard trees are part of the 2021 expansion. “New employees are curious about what we’re doing here and most want to get involved. The Farm is the keystone of our whole sustainability program,” Flick says.

Everything starts small. Everything starts with the seed of an idea. “A golf course is far removed from being a natural landscape, but there are elements of it that can function like one,” Flick says. Look up, enjoy the blue sky, and forge ahead.

How do you make eco-budget work enticing? Because it isn’t. It takes planning, common sense and grit to help the environment and your course, but it’s not as daunting as it seems. Plus, intrinsic bonus, the world — and your boss — will thank you.

Tim Hiers, director of golf course operations, works at an exclusive property in Florida with more than 17,000 acres dedicated to the care and conservation of endangered and threatened species. Think exotic okapi, bongos and dama gazelles. Hiers estimates that since 1970 the average maintenance budget for most golf courses has gone up by about 800 percent. “Is there anybody smart enough to reduce their budget, without compromising quality, without reducing acreage of turf?” Hiers asks. Unlikely. So, Step 1 is to reduce maintained acreage.

Located in downtown Columbia, Missouri, by Faurot Field on Stadium Drive, Isaac Breuer, superintendent for the A. L. Gustin Golf Course at the University of Missouri, agrees. “We are easily saving $300 to $400 per acre per year in not mowing,” he says. “That’s mowing once a week, in the Transition Zone, April to November, factoring an hourly wage and fuel.” The amount saved could increase if you include wear-and-tear on machines, watering, and the elimination of fertilizer or herbicide applications. Multiply that by a few acres and a few years and those savings become significant. A. L. Gustin was the first university course to be fully certified by Audubon International in 1997 and it has been ever since, with Breuer at the helm.

Course comprehension

Pollinator plots are one way to reduce maintained acreage and to add to the aesthetic and carrying capacity of a property. “I think there is room for a pollinator plot on every course in America,” Breuer says. They don’t need much area and directly benefit birds, bees and butterflies, with seed costs for half an acre approximately $150. At A.L. Gustin, 20 to 25 native species are planted in each of five plots, including purple coneflowers, foxglove beardtongue, wild bergamot, butterfly milkweed and black-eyed susans. They are utterly gorgeous.

“If your new plantings affect less than one out of 100 shots, you’re OK,” Hiers says. “But they have to pass the aesthetic test, the functional test and the playability test. Native plants are not a panacea and most people fail physically or psychologically when they try to naturalize.”

You have to pick the right plants at the right size, density and time of year, irrigate properly, and keep the weeds out. You have to be patient, too. Maturation takes three years.

Financing excellent environmental practices is a long-term investment and staff and owner support are important. Breuer’s enthusiastic assistants, Nick Gilbert and Eric Acton, and the head pro, Jim Knoesel, all work together. “We talk through ideas,” Breuer says. “This is what we are trying to do, will it work, and these are the costs. They have been 100 percent on board with everything.” Knoesel helped with the 26 original bluebird houses on the 18-hole property, which also has four beehives that produce honey to be sold in the pro shop (with profits reinvested nto maintaining healthy beehives). To date, more than 3,000 bluebirds have been fledged in 25-plus years.

Environmental savings grow when your staff truly knows the course. The greens are Cohansey creeping bentgrass and the rough is a tall fescue. The tees and fairways were switched from fescue to zoysiagrass. “It can be taken to the edge,” Breuer says, “and our fairways are known for being firm and fast. Players appreciate that long roll.”

Spraying on a curative instead of a preventative basis is another potential way to help the environment in the right situation. If you take this approach, you must pay close attention to conditions.

“We know if we’re going to get dollar spot, it’s going to show up at this place, on this marker green,” Breuer says. When the staff see that, they can take care of it. Various models help to save a few applications each year and that adds up in supply costs and labor. “We watch the weather to stay lean on fertilizer,” Breuer says, “and that helps, too.”

An observant staff saves money. “We talk about the environment all the time and not esoterically,” Hiers says. “When you ask someone to do a job, tell them why we are doing it so everyone feels a part of what we are doing.” Know your people, know your course and help your people know your course. Invest in the right people, retain them and when you don’t know something, find an expert. Mistakes are costly.

Equipment matters

Irrigation is a head-spinning topic when it comes to ways to save. Moisture meters, preferably in-ground, help take the guess work out of watering. Hand watering can often be more efficient. “A lot of sprinkler heads can be dug up and capped,” Breuer says. That saves money every time you turn on the system.

A prescription irrigation system will initially cost more, “but save money and resources in the long run,” Hiers says. Self-audit your irrigation system every year and get a professional audit done every three to four years. Water costs compound quickly. Check every head, constantly service your pump station, and if possible, consider premium efficient motors.

“Ideally, the whole course can be watered in five hours or less,” says Hiers, which makes it easier to use off peak rates. “Work your coverage from the perimeter in instead of the opposite. Think about a lower PSI system, which pulls fewer amps and creates heavier water droplets, so you lose less to misting. Heads distributing water with the right pressure at the correct angle help the environment and your budget.

Safe equipment for protecting the people, wildlife and land at your property shows you care and is definitively less expensive than lawsuits. Don’t overlook the upkeep of your maintenance facility, where proper storage of chemicals is non-negotiable. Without a secure maintenance facility, your entire operation is at risk. Accident prevention saves money.

Electric equipment can be more expensive but offers potential. If your course can be maintained earlier or more easily with quieter machines, that opens up your tee sheet and saves labor hours. Now you have cut your fuel budget, upped your efficiency, done something positive for the environment — and hydraulic leaks are impossible.

Technology can help you manage your property in a more environmentally friendly way, but if you don’t master it, you’re leaving money on the shelf. A drone that provides information you can’t get by walking the course is a great example. “Is the technology going to help you use your resources more efficiently?” Hiers says. “Make your operation safer? Improve the condition of the course? Help your employees?” Research your purchases so dollars saved can be used for environmental extras.

“I’m shocked at the number of courses that don’t have covered booms on their spray vehicles,” Hiers says. “The cover knocks the drift down by about 90 percent and provides a better distribution pattern.” Booms cost about $10,000 per machine but if you lease or buy new machines you can still use them. Take care of them and they’ll work for 10 to 15 years. Use them and you ensure that applications are staying where they should while not interfering with birds, bees, wildlife and habitats.

“Smart people can be very emotional about trees,” Hiers says. But if they’re affecting the environmental health of your course, address them. There can be problems with roots, shade, air circulation and competition with turf for nutrients and water. Tree maintenance is cost effective and environmentally sound.

To do your best for the environment, “visit courses, continuously communicate with superintendents about their best ideas, go to pertinent seminars, and just don’t stop,” Hiers says.

“People have a more favorable impression of golf courses if they know you’re doing something for the environment,” adds Breuer, who gives tours, and lets children make and throw seed balls to create pollinator plots.

Encouraging everyone to be environmentally considerate might even make long-term eco-budget work enticing.

Lee Carr is a Northeast Ohio-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.

All the above is true for golf. More than the scorecard or the Stimpmeter reading. More than fairway laughter. Where the land changes, shifts and plays in different ways every day, natural elements shape the sport. Wind, trees, water, sun, soil, sand, turf. Where humans and nature compete it’s possible for all the players to win and Audubon International is changing the game.

Based in Troy, New York and founded in 1987, AI is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. It’s funded through sponsors and members. Certification and education are encouraged to promote robust environmental stewardship. It’s easiest to join through the website. Members receive multiple resources, “including the Guide to Environmental Stewardship on the Golf Course, which is pretty much our Bible,” says Frank LaVardera, director of environmental programs for golf at AI. An initial site assessment is completed and then an environmental plan is created, addressing each of the technical components of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP), formally established in 1991.

Those components are water conservation, water quality management, wildlife habitat management, chemical use reduction and safety, and, importantly, outreach and education. Using the established environmental plan, AI provides expert advice to help each member reach standards required for certification. It’s a unique process as some properties may have little to do to be certified and others will have farther to travel. Certification typically takes around two years but can be accomplished in six months.

When the property earns approval in all the technical areas, AI staff tour the site to ensure proper standards have been met and certification becomes official. To maintain certification, detailed information must be submitted after three years, with another site visit three years after that. That first certification has the steepest learning curve.

Program costs are balanced by professional support and ideas shared by AI, customized assistance, and positive brand association. It costs $400 to become a member, $500 per year once certified and some additional fees for site visits, which vary depending on location. There may be costs for each course to improve its environmental efforts (chemical use, water quality and water conservation are usually the tricky technical aspects of the program), but there are ways a course can become more environmentally friendly and cut expenses simultaneously.

Globally, there are nearly 2,000 ACSP members and it’s been a “comprehensive and robust program for over 30 years,” LaVardera says. AI is available to help properties ranging from world-renowned Pine Valley Golf Club to local municipal courses. These properties are all contributing to the momentum for environmental standards and garner third-party recognition for their effort.

Ted Horton, secretary of the AI board of directors (2014-present), has decades of experience in working in golf and the environment from his time as superintendent at Winged Foot (1966-79) to serving as vice president, resource management with the Pebble Beach Company (1993-2001). “We can go further to allow the community to enjoy the environment on golf properties,” Horton says, “and we must keep trying.” During his time with Pebble Beach Company, he changed some environmental perceptions of the industry and that is what those working with AI continue to do, too.

Let’s examine how a pair of courses on different coasts, certified in different eras, are promoting environmental efforts.

The Links at Spanish Bay

Horton was hired to ensure Pebble Beach Company was environmentally friendly. The Links at Spanish Bay, which is owned and managed by the company, had opened in November 1987 with a design by Sandy Tatum, Tom Watson and Robert Trent Jones, Jr. The course was built on an old sand mining site and development was narrowly approved by Monterey County officials and the California Coastal Commission. Ownership committed to recreating the dunescape and restoring the native habitats.

The plants originally on site no longer thrived there because the sand that had been mined varied from the sand brought in to replace it. To restore the sand dune habitat, a different palate of native plants was carefully selected in collaboration with the California Native Plant Society. “The nursery onsite grew hundreds and thousands of those plants, which were planted along the golf course and the sand dunes bordering it,” Horton says. “And the groups formed a good relationship by working together.” The nursery is still in operation and native plants are shared with the local community.

It took time to build trust between the golf industry and several environmental organizations. To keep earning that trust and to challenge the perception that golf courses were environmentally damaging, Horton and PBC organized an environmental golf summit. With the environment, communication and compromises are part of the process but are necessary for long-term gain.

Around the same time that Pebble Beach Company was placing more value on the environment, so was AI. The Links at Spanish Bay was the first course in California to be certified into the ACSP in 1994. Other Pebble Beach Company courses were certified also: Spyglass Hill (2000), Del Monte (2001) and Pebble Beach (2003). A new short course “The Hay” designed by Tiger Woods and TGR Design that is part of the Pebble Beach course will be a part of the certification (as was the Peter Hay course there previously).

“PBC has consistently upheld the guidelines and principles of the certification and have successfully completed many recertifications over the years,” LaVardera says. “Their long-term commitment to the environment is commendable.”

In addition to PBC vice president and director of golf John Sawin, there are other senior members of the leadership team devoted to resource management and environmental affairs. The PBC directives for the environment are beyond inspirational. Genuine stewardship extends from the top down, from designated positions to solar panels on the Pebble Beach maintenance facility to recycling at every Pebble Beach Company property.

Pete Bachman, superintendent at The Links at Spanish Bay, immaculately maintains Poa greens and a rye/Poa mix on the tees, fairways and roughs. The superintendent of each Pebble Beach Company course reports to Sawin and every employee is aware of, trained in and contributes to environmental initiatives. By sunset, when the bagpiper begins to play, the environment and the course have been nurtured.

“The long-term commitment the company has made is amazing,” says Sawin, who joined Pebble Beach Company three years ago. “From preserving a quarter of the Del Monte Forest; to maintaining 50 miles of walking, hiking, and equestrian trails; to recovering and recycling golf balls from the ocean, add it all up and it really is impressive.”

And that’s just one extraordinary company and a few very special courses. There are many more working for the environment and with AI.

Duran Golf Club

Shortly after the 2020 Golf Industry Show in Orlando, Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida, was one of the last courses to be certified in person before COVID-19 restrictions swept the United States. Officially certified in February 2020, Duran has been an AI member since 2014 and really began its journey with the course design in 2004. That’s 16 years of sustained ambition.

“Becoming ACSP certified was always a goal so the course was created with wildlife corridors and utilizing Florida natural plant materials,” says Jeff Von Eschen, senior manager of golf operations. Superintendent Drew Norman is also a longtime staff member, helping with construction and the grow in. The hero of Duran’s certification is Dr. Jim Papritan, a dedicated golfer and professor emeritus from Ohio State University’s Department of Food, Agriculture and Biological Engineering.

“He was looking for something to do,” Von Eschen says. “I said, ‘Funny you should ask,’ and we talked.” He was organized and kept pushing. “With the course, you can get sidetracked with projects, so Jim set dates and times for us to get everything done.”

Papritan handled paperwork and insisted that Duran do everything correctly. Papritan was the one in contact with AI. It can’t be reiterated enough, it is worth enlisting help. LaVardera highly recommends configuring a “Resource Advisory Committee.”

This public course was created on what was originally a sod farm. There are 18 holes with tees, fairways and roughs covered by Tifway 419 Bermudagrass. The greens are TifEagle Bermudagrass. A few tee boxes are used as experimental plots to see if Empire and Icon zoysiagrass can be maintained at lower mowing heights. There are also pockets of Bahiagrass on the edges of the course and an extensive illuminated practice area and short course.

At Duran, there are well-used brush piles, bat boxes and bird houses for purple matins, Carolina wrens and tree swallows. There are acres of no-spray zones and naturalized areas to increase the carrying capacity of the property and an integrated pest management program to reduce chemical usage. Water is conserved by using nonionic surfactants and by hand watering dry spots. Ponds and wetlands are monitored to ensure appropriate water quality, and students frequently use the course for science projects.

Winds off the Atlantic Ocean influence playing conditions, but that doesn’t bother the golfers or the staff. They enjoy it all, including seeing butterflies visit the pollinator garden. “We keep an eye out for gators during the removal of invasive species in the native areas,” says Norman, who prefers tangible projects and plays a pivotal role in Duran’s accomplishments.

“Part of the reason we wanted to be certified is because golf courses get a bad reputation for being awful polluters of the environment,” Von Eschen says. “I know every superintendent in this area and certified or not, we are stewards of the land and responsible in everything we do.”

Duran intends to maintain certification and continues to photograph and document new projects so the paperwork will be ready. “It was extremely rewarding to get that certification,” says Von Eschen — and, of course, Papritan was there.

“The certification documents submitted by the Duran Golf Club were truly amazing,” LaVardera says. “Dr. Jim Papritan, Jeff Von Eschen and the entire Duran team demonstrated a detailed understanding of establishing and implementing environmentally sustainable practices.”

Looking Ahead

Besides certification, three AI conservation initiatives provide options to enhance and promote sustainability: BioBlitz, Raptor Relocation Network and Monarchs in the Rough. BioBlitz is open to every golf course and requires little planning. Accommodating participants young and old, people gather to identify and count species of plants and animals. Observing the on-course diversity demonstrates the value of these green spaces. Promotional materials and event instructions are provided.

Due to high nesting grounds and long views across the fairways, golf courses provide great habitats for owls, kestrels and hawks who help control insects, rodents and other golf course pests. The Raptor Relocation Network is a partnership between United Airlines Eco-Skies and AI to connect ACSP golf courses with airport wildlife managers in San Francisco and the New York metro area.

Monarchs in the Rough is a third conservation initiative option. This effort is trying to reverse the decline in the monarch population. The premise is to create pollinator habitats on a national network of golf courses to collectively reduce habitat loss for these iconic butterflies. The 755 courses in the program have dedicated more than 1,000 acres for monarch habitat. Courses are eligible to receive an acre’s worth of regionally appropriate milkweed and wildflower mixes. Signage, posters and technical guidance are available.

AI is always moving forward, though Horton acknowledges it’s sometimes difficult to have the funding and staffing to check on certified courses. Virtual visits offer more potential since the pandemic. “We are considering recognition for the individual who has helped the course be certified,” Horton says. “It wouldn’t have to be a superintendent, it could be anyone driving the AI process.”

“As golf courses are being built or renovated, make sure there is a walking trail around it. Make sure any open space has some gardens for pollinators,” Horton says. “Courses generate oxygen, provide wildlife habitat, filter water, help control flooding and so much more. All these things are positive and we need to talk about them. Decisions made with enthusiasm move the success needle and result in reaching goals and personally experiencing something amazing.”

An intriguing sport of so much more than 18 holes, the environment establishes the natural grace of every round. Successfully navigating decades of growth, AI has the ideas and energy to encourage and support those who are ready. Coast to coast, and for every perceptive spirit, environmental stewardship can be a resounding strength of the game.

Lee Carr is a Northeast Ohio-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.