From the Greens
Sustainable Golf Courses
Design & Construction
by Wg. Cdr. Arun Kumar Singh (Retd)
President, GCS&MAI
olf in India has more or less
remained static for the past
many years despite the
historical claim of being the
¿ rst country to have golf
courses outside the British
Isles. Opening up of our economy and the
tech boom did bring about a rapid acceleration
into the fortunes of Indian middle class and
its aspirations. At the turn of this century, it
did appear that we were at the cusp of an
impending golf course construction as ITC
Classic Resort unveiled India’s ¿ rst modern
golf course with the iconic Jack Nicklaus
designing it. It was soon followed by new
golf courses designed by the likes of Arnold
Palmer, Greg Norman, Martin Hawtree, Phil
Ryan etc. The landscape looked good but it
hid some of the other undesirable facts which
showed not such a pretty picture. . The
number of golfers in the country (as per IGU
statistics) hasn’t changed from the ¿ gure of 1
lac in the past 10 years, well established golf
courses like Royal Bombay, Royal Western
India, Jorhat Gymkhana, Ghatshila, Kolar etc
have vanished. We have certainly been
struggling as can be seen from the decline of
most new courses too. There’s obviously a lot
to be done and a lot to learn to improve the
landscape and sustainability of golf courses is
an important constituent of any such progress.
It may be now the time to reassess our
philosophies of construction and maintenance
of golf courses to be in harmony with our
surroundings and natural habitat. The urban
golf centers should become sanctuaries
enhancing the biodiversity rather than an
oasis or ‘ Watering Holes ‘ (Pun intended).
The necessary change has to begin with the
Design itself. The trend worldwide has
shifted to what Gilbert Hanse, a very hot
name after his creation of the Golf Course for
Rio Olympics, describes as ‘ Low Impact
Design’. Trent Jones of the extremely well
known ‘ Robert Trent Jones Design ‘
explained it further while talking about the
shift to ‘minimalistic interference’ in the
design of Chamber Bay, Tacoma, Washington
(USA) by his father in 2006. His grandfather,
Robert Trent Jones Sr., the founder, is
considered the Grandfather of Modern Golf
Architect as he used the rapid technological
development in earth moving equipment for
creating new landscapes or cutting into them.
Massive shifting of earth and material created
grand landscapes but at a great ¿ nancial and
environmental cost. In the current times such
construction will not only involve big
¿ nancial outlays but also will destroy the
available habitat. The destroyed habitat is
unlikely to be replaced despite utterances of
the designers to the contrary. Construction of
the golf courses also has to undergo a
paradigm shift. Almost all golf courses are
now
constructed
as
per
USGA
recommendations on construction of greens.
The recommendations of USGA are based on
considerable research but do not claim it to be
the only method of construction and there are
other ways to construct greens without any
deterioration in quality. Method of
construction as suggested by USGA remains
only
‘Recommendations’ and can be
followed with modi¿ cations after assessing
local conditions of soil, rainfall, requirement
of drainage etc. One of the immediate major
challenges in India is the availability of good
quality sand and this will continue to escalate
due to fast depletion of riverbeds and more
importantly the damage being caused to the
ecosystem of our rivers by the mindless
mining of riverbeds. Judicial intervention is
certain to make it a scarcely available
commodity. Quantities of sand will have to be
reduced by limiting the usage to only very
important areas of Greens complexes. It may
also be feasible to reduce the proportion of
sand require if sandy soils exist and the area
gets lesser rainfall. A construction catering to
quick drainage at peak monsoons will have
the disadvantage of needing greater irrigation
and usage of more fertilisers which will be a
lifelong feature. A little compromise may
help reducing this lifelong burden. Golf
Course Designers will have to revisit the
concept of creating Bunkers on the course.
Placing them as part of playing strategy will
certainly continue but keeping some only for
visual aesthetics will need to be seriously
examined. There’s also the possibility of
reducing the size of bunkers and intersperse
them strategically like what is done in many
courses in Scotland. This could reduce the
requirement of sand and make the game more
enjoyable by adding ‘some rub of the green’.
It is also worthwhile to explore availability of
locally available material for use in bunkers
Belas Clube Campo Golf Course
4 8 G o l f P l u s
48
N O V E M B ER
2018