Marvel’s environmental programs save golfers money

Marvel Golf Club in Benton, Kentucky unveiled its Affordable Golf from a Better Environment initiative.  The cornerstone of the initiative is a reduction of daily play to $25 green fees for an 18-hole round with cart which is good seven days a week; senior golfers, 55 years of age and older, pay only $22 green fees. Over the past three years, Marvel has developed and implemented numerous environmental programs throughout the golf course which has resulted in maintenance cost savings of approximately $275,000 per year, which is being passed along to the golfers in the form of reduced greens fees for the 2009 golfing season.

“Passing along this kind of savings to our golfers makes everyone here at Marvel very proud,” says Christopher Gray Sr., General Manager at Marvel Golf Club and Estates. “Golf courses have been wrongly labeled as poor stewards of the environment and this initiative is our first step in proactively changing that unfair perception of golf courses and the golf course industry.”

Through multiple faceted environmental programs that are designed to reduce maintenance costs, Marvel has been able to save approximately $275,000 each year from establishing native areas, harvesting recycled water from the houses within Marvel Estates, capturing rain water runoff from rain events, incorporating a “spoon feeding” fertilizer program, and establishing high pest thresholds levels for the various areas of the golf course.