we ran a conference in Portugal in Estoril,
where the European golf associations repre-
sented there called on the R&A to take the
lead in environmental matters. We’ve got
to do it. We have a website now called best-
courseforgolf.org, which I recommend
to anyone, and we have a definition of
sustainability as the start of that website.
GGP What’s the key?
PD It really is all about golf being, on the one
hand, economically affordable, and on the
other being a good neighbor in the way
it uses land, the way it creates habitats for
wildlife and the way it minimizes the use of
water and pesticides and fertilizer, so we’ve
got all these things rolled into the concept
of sustainability. One is blessed in Scotland
by the fact that the natural grasses that exist
are good for golf and therefore they don’t
need a huge amount of water. In fact, they
don’t need any most years. They don’t need
much by the way of fertilizer. They don’t
need much by the way of pesticides.
Also, and we found this in the Far East as
well a problem, the amount of money that’s
expended on clubhouses and those sorts
of facilities forced golf into a very high cost
area. I always think Kingsbarns near St. Andrews was a great model for this. The whole
project cost about £ 5,000,000, clubhouse
included. You don’t need huge clubhouses
to play golf. You need somewhere to socialize, change your shoes, maybe have a quick
shower. Do you need banqueting facilities
and all these things? Probably not.
“When look out my window at St. Andrews in
the middle of the summer, this is true, and
the 18th fairway is green we honestly say,
‘Oh, what a shame.’ It hasn’t browned off this
year. We’ve gotten too much rain.”
be actually part of real estate programs in
order for them to survive. Kingsbarns isn’t
one of those. It’s a great piece of land. And
also, we hear stories about architects almost
bragging about how much earth they’ve
moved and how many mountains they’ve
moved to create this wonderful golf course.
Well, the last thing you want to do, in my
book, if you want to be sustainable, is to
move a lot of earth. You want to use the
terrain that’s there as far as possible. And
if you’re having to move mountains, maybe
there shouldn’t be a golf course there in
the first place.
It’s pretty radical stuff. But golf can be
very affordable — as we see in Scotland and
other places. It’s the way golf has to go. I
think there will be a connection between
golf getting into the Olympics and cheaper,
more affordable golf coming along as more
and more countries want to find golfers in
their population who can compete for gold
medals.
pecting golf growth. Are we looking through
rose-colored glasses in expecting the entire
world to rally around golf immediately just
because of the Olympics?
PD I think we are. I think the Olympic thing
will be a great boost, but it won’t be in every
country. It won’t be universal. Problems like
permitting and infrastructure in certain
countries won’t go away just because golf is
in the Olympics. And I don’t think the world
should be covered in golf courses for one
minute. There are other things out there for
people to get involved in, but we’d certainly
like to see the game grow in a lot of places,
and this is going to help.
amongst the population, it’s going to be very
difficult to increase it any more or even to
sustain it at this point. There’s so much more
competition now for leisure hours for kids
and older people that we have to work very
hard in America, and the U.K. as well, just
to maintain the market share that we have.
The American golfing public does seem to
expect its courses to be highly manicured
to artificial conditions to our minds, on the
outside, and I’m sure in reverse they think
our courses are quite scruffy. But, how can I
put it, most championship golf courses here
(U.S.) probably have a greens staff in excess
of 50 people. Most Open Championship golf
courses in the U.K. have a greens staff of 10
or 11 people.
Now, that is not only an indication of the
different approach and maybe the different grasses, but it’s also an indication of the
financial effect and how much that adds to
the cost of the game. Yes, most Open Championships, you go to Muirfield or Troon or
whatever, they have 10 or 11 guys. That’s all
they have.
GGP The solutions?
PD I think that there are ways that golf courses
can be built so much more cheaply than
they have been without them having to
GGP It’s clear that certain emerging golf nations,
China foremost among them, have decided
advantages over others when it comes to ex-
GGP What can Americans do? The Scots invented
the game and have learned how to sustain
it. In America it seems like a lot of mistakes,
especially by overzealous entrepreneurs, are
being made. From where you sit, what can
the Americans be doing better?
PD Let’s not knock America. America is the
greatest golfing nation on earth — in terms
of participation and in terms of number of
golf courses and so on. I think having got
such a market share for golf in America
GGP So you would agree with the phrase that is
gaining increasing currency that “brown is
green” when it comes to golf course looks
and maintenance and that less is more?
PD Brown is green. That’s quite a good way to
put it, I think. When I look out my window
at St. Andrews in the middle of the summer, this is honestly true, and when the 18th
fair way is green we honestly say, “Oh, what a
shame, it hasn’t browned off this year. We’ve
gotten too much rain.” If greenkeepers at
Open championship courses have put on
water at any time in the three months prior
to the Open Championship, I want to know
about it. l
