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Golf and the Environment

Golf evolved from nature. And in golf lies the sustenance of nature. Golf courses provide the perfect sanctuary for the preservation and perpetuation of plant ecosystems which are rapidly disappearing from the developed world. Prairies, dunes, deserts, wetlands, mountains, links, trees, shrubs, grasses, and endangered species can all find a home on the golf course where they can be maintained, sustained, and preserved for future generations.

Golf also provides sustenance for the human soul: elevating the spirit to new heights with each new achievement and golf experience and, likewise, dropping it to depths unknown with each failure to perform as expected. These experiences are intimately linked with the environment because it is nature and the elements that we battle in golf. As new generations are introduced to golf, they are also introduced to and affected by the environment, and subsequently, they are compelled to maintain and sustain nature as their ancestors have before them.

The environment determines what happens in golf; how the golfer reacts with nature and the environment, either overcoming or succumbing to the environmental elements presented at each hole. Golf is the environment. Golf doesn't control the environment; the environment controls golf.

By providing different and unique settings for the game, golf is influenced by the environment that surrounds it and enhances that environment by allowing people to intimately interact with nature in these settings. This is the true beauty of golf; it utilizes what nature provides for us and enhances it, giving new meaning to the world around us and continuing to do so for future generations.

Maintenance

American fairways are often immaculately maintained and seldom offer a poor lie due to conditioning or by design. Conditions in fairways and roughs on many overseas courses are frequently less maintained due to the cultural acceptance of less intensive maintenance, but where firm and fast conditions prevail, thus allowing the ball to run across the ground more, and use the natural contours of the land as a playing interest.

Turfgrass professionals are more focused on maintaining great turfgrass quality but are also environmentally conscious and prudent. Technology has helped us to create better turf that is more resistant to pests and disease while still giving a denser playing surface and a lower height of cut. What must be foremost in our thoughts is that perfect maintenance can’t fix a bad design and that good golf comes from variety in the strategy of the golf design.

Cart Paths

Cart paths are a modern element of golf. Older courses never thought about them but do today due to demand. The result is that their inclusion often detracts from an older course’s original charm. Modern courses are often routed or built with the cart paths dictating design elements.

Indeed, carts are a prevalent part of the golf scene in America and make cart paths a very necessary element. DeVries Designs tries to integrate cart paths in ways that do not detract from the overall golf experience and allow for access for those players that choose to ride.

Clubhouse

The clubhouse is an important aspect to any golf course. Its style leads to the atmosphere of the club; its size to the various functions it can handle; and its location to the routing of the golf course. Frequently, a high promontory is chosen for its views over the golf course and countryside.

DeVries Designs believes the most important aspect in locating the clubhouse is its relationship to the golf course routing in terms of improving the flow of the golf round. By improving the rhythm of the golf course experience, the clubhouse experience can be improved also. Leading off to the first tee and coming in on the eighteenth green can be enhanced by ensuring that those aspects of the round are special occasions of the day. By synthesizing the clubhouse site with the golf course, a truly special environment can be developed.

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