Golf and Environmental conflict

Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers), using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes.

It is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf "courses", each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either nine or eighteen holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."

Golf competition is generally played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play.

From airborne pollution in cities to the decline of aquatic ecosystems and degradation of water resources, potential chemicals impacts have been directly linked to a decline in the living quality of all things, changing the long-term outlook of society.
Golf is an environmental quality chimera. On the one hand people accuse golf facilities of degrading the environment - applying fertilizers and pesticides in quantities that have lasting negative impacts on people and wildlife - and other the other there is widely-held belief that golf courses, particularly as living urban greenspaces, help to clean and protect environmental quality.

The reality is that while the concerns of the former are understood and legitimate, allegations that golf contaminates and pollutes are not backed by strong scientific evidence. Since pesticides were first utilized for golf course maintenance in the 1920's, there has been but a handful of pollution incidents. Of course even a single incident is one too many, but levels of awareness, training and standards of operation have never been higher.

Although there are a multitude of independent studies demonstrating that golf does its fair share to improve the condition of air, water and soils, this is one area that would certainly benefit from further and more definitive research.

Going forward, all golf related businesses should be working actively to minimize any risks to the environment and their workforces (often the two things go hand in hand).

In particular, all individuals employed in the business of golf course maintenance and development, particularly those who handle, store, apply or dispose of substances that could pollute if dealt with incorrectly, should be aware of their responsibilities and understand the causes and results of pollution. They should know how and when to operate and maintain the equipment they use, and know what to do in an emergency.

Eliminating the risk of pollution is critical to realizing one of golf’s most significant contributions to people and their environment - creating clean, healthy and stable naturalised greenspaces where people can recreate and enhance their physical and mental well-being.