GolfPlus Nov18 Digital Edition (Nov18) | Page 36

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