Enhancing golf and the environment.

Park and recreation managers are beginning to recognize that today's golf courses not only include contemporary aesthetic and agronomic developments, but they also directly address a broad range of complex environmental issues. Today's courses are designed, built and maintained to work in concert with surrounding wetlands and wildlife areas. The result is that environmentalists and golfers alike are applauding these highly successful efforts.

Members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) believe in taking a proactive approach to designing golf courses that are both challenging and environmentally friendly. ASGCA members are involved in every step of the design process, from analyzing environmental impact statements to conducting tree and water tests to preparing appropriate documentation for use in public hearings before regulatory agencies to working with park and recreation managers on maintenance schedules. When designing a new golf course or redesigning an existing layout, architects consider potential environmental impact issues during the planning and design phases. In fact, many ASGCA architects work hand-in-hand with the New York Audubon Society to develop certified sanctuary programs.

The increase in the number of people playing golf has generated strong demand for more public courses. According to The National Golf Foundation:

* Twenty-eight million golfers played 505 million rounds of golf in 1992, up from 479 million rounds the previous year.

* Of the 354 new courses opened, 81 percent were daily fee or municipal. Only 67 of the new courses are private.

* Golf among households with annual incomes less than $35,00 grew a healthy 12 percent in rounds played and a 5.3 percent increase in the number of players.

Clearly, golf continues to be a major pastime that shows no sign of slowing. Herein lies the challenge to keep pace with demand and build a better community environment at the same time. Consider the environmentally sensitive designs in the following examples:

Gravel Pit Transformed

The Greystone Golf Club in Romeo, Michigan, is a shining example of how we can reclaim and convert wasteland into a beautiful addition to the surrounding community. Operated as a gravel pit for 50 years, the 255-acre eyesore has been transformed into a community asset. Mining operations left the land stark and barren with severe topographic changes, isolated wetland pockets, diverse soil profiles and a 30-acre lake. The diverse soil profile was the primary environmental and design concern. During mining operations, portions of the site were stripped of native soil and replaced with silt and clay waste products. In many cases, mine tailings had been dumped on top of the native topsoil, creating a wasteland where only the hardiest weeds could gain a toehold.

Besides presenting an agronomic problem for growing healthy turfgrass, the diverse soil profiles also affected a proposed nearby real estate development. The soils in the areas planned for residential use consisted of mainly slits and clays and were unacceptable for an on-site sewer system. The mining operation left undisturbed some isolated wetland pockets scattered throughout the site. Because wetlands are a vital part of the local ecology, workers made every effort to preserve them.

Architects carefully routed the golf course around and between the existing wetlands. Buffer zones with natural vegetation reduced the risk of contaminating wetlands with surface runoff from the golf course. During construction, workers erected fabric-erosion fencing along the wetland boundaries and seeded and mulched adjacent areas to prevent any erosion from occuring in the wetlands. Various forms of turfgrasses, tree plantings and other vegetation also minimized runoff. Large spoil mounds --remnants of the mining operation, were used as dramatic elevation changes for tee complexes. Similarly, architects turned other mounds into greens complexes. They routed fairways around the mounds, while carving bunkers out of the spoil deposits, creating a natural, flowing golf course.

Golf Course Tops Landfill

In 1982, the city of Santa Clara, California, undertook an ambitious public project to develop a municipal golf course, convention center and hotel atop a city-owned landfill. The landfill itself was bisected into east and west sectors by Lafayette Street, a six-lane thoroughfare. The west side, closed and capped in the early 1970s, was virtually flat with no surface drainage or vegetation. The east side, capped in 1982, was a square-shaped piece of land with a three percent gradient radiating from the center, producing a dome-like appearance. Soil borings showed that a clay cap covering the refuse varied in thickness from a few inches to a few feet. A properly built course needed a uniform, three-foot clay cover.

When designing and building a golf course atop a landfill, the primary concerns are to provide proper surface drainage and to properly ventilate dangerous methane gas--a natural byproduct of a landfill. Introducing water into the refuse must be avoided, since it hastens the production of methane. On the west side of the landfill, workers brought in heavy earthmoving equipment to scrape away the existing clay cap. Then they reshaped the refuse into a series of ridges and hills, and a new clay cap was installed over the entire landfill. This provided for basic surface drainage patterns necessary to build the course.

Golf architect Damjan Pascuzzo knew that the existing clay was incompatible for growing quality turfgrass or for sustaining trees. His designs called for having local contractors haul in excess soil from other sites and create tree mounds along and between the fairways. The mounds, ranging from six to ten feet in height and 60 to 100 feet in diameter, gave the course character and provided a root zone for the trees. His design also planned for the inevitable; landfill refuse decomposes and settles over time. To prevent breaks in the irrigation system, he specified high density pipe (HDPE) because:

* The pipe is more flexible than polyvinyl chloride pipe (PVC) and can be accurately laid into trenches according to the plan.

* HDPE is heat fusible. Although the material is more expensive than PVC, once the pipe is fused it has no joints to develop leaks.

* HDPE pipe manufacturers offer a wide variety of connections, allowing easy transitions to smaller pipes and laterals.

To control the methane, workers placed a network of 100 wells throughout the site. Pascuzzo worked closely with landfill engineers to carefully place the well heads in the roughs and other out-of-play areas. At Santa Clara the gas is safely vented, although other landfill sites may be conducive to recovering and using the gas.

Planting was carefully tailored to site conditions. More than 1,200 trees were planted on the course, a majority of them eucalyptus, which has a high tolerance in poor soil conditions and is very resistant to methane gas and to salt air blowing in from nearby San Francisco Bay. Pencross bentgrass was specified for the tees and greens because it can easily handle wind and sand conditions. Following four years of environmentally conscious construction, the Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club opened to the public in 1986. Today it is a popular Bay Area course averaging between 90,000 and 100,000 rounds of golf per year.

In 1990, the town of Channahon, Illinois 45 miles southwest of Chicago, embarked on an ambitious project--reclaiming an abandoned sand and gravel pit and farmland on 160 acres and transforming it into a public golf facility. The town contacted ASGCA member Dick Nugent to design an 18-hole public facility with the idea being that if the community could incorporate a public golf course into its recreation program, it would make Channahon a more attractive place to live and stop the exodus of local golfers to other nearby public courses.

The routing plan called for several landscape changes that would reclaim the land and also provide a golfing challenge. Nugent had some special challenges. Part of the course would approach wetland areas. Several spoil piles, remnants of the mining operation, would have to be leveled or reduced. When a nearby interstate highway was rebuilt, concrete and other materials were discarded in the old mine pit; they would have to be removed. One of the more interesting pit discoveries was a large collection of old crates from a nearby munitions plant labeled "TNT!" All these elements had to be removed, leveled or defused before construction could begin.

Nugent's design called for an 18-hole course with USGA-approved greens and a practice facility. Both the course and the practice area took advantage of the unique topographic features offered by the mine pit and adjacent wetlands. Construction began in late 1991 and in August 1993, the Heritage Bluff Golf Club opened for play. Golfers played a total of 13,464 rounds of golf in the first 114 days, according to Chuck Czoke, director of parks and recreation for the Channahon Park District. He also reports that the course has become a habitat for coyotes, rabbits, fox, birds and deer.

Consider the Environment

Park and recreation managers considering developing existing land for public courses should keep in mind several important environmental design considerations:

* Determine if the golf course can reclaim marginal land.

* Make sure the proposed golf course blends with the wetlands and other sensitive environmental areas.

* Work around significant historical or archeological areas on the site.

* Pre-test the water sources and soil during the pre-planning stage.

* Determine if the golf course will affect the character of a site by improving the topography and vegetation?

* Establish an integrated pesticide management program to prevent water pollution.

* Identify all available water sources and design a versatile system of irrigation.

* Design the golf course to promote ecological systems at the site. Golf courses can be an ideal sanctuary for birds, fish and wildlife.

With the growing popularity of golf and the increased environmental awareness among the American public, today's golf courses need to be designed to work within the environment, not against it. With management foresight and advice from experienced design professionals, we can achieve that goal.