Scotland tees up eco-friendly golf course

When it comes to the sport of golf, Greenbang is firmly in the Mark Twain and Winston Churchill camp of it being a good walk spoiled. Greenbang’s golf handicap is the ability to top the ball 20 yards and dig up half a tonne of turf on most shots – and that’s just on the greens. Greenbang also doesn’t look very good in Rupert the Bear trousers.

With all the water, pesticides and other chemicals it takes to maintain most golf courses it also isn’t the most environmentally-friendly of sports.

But word reaches Greenbang of a new course being built on the west coast of Scotland that aims to change all that.

The Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club is due to open in 2009 and sits on a site of Special Scientific Interest.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph no chemicals, pesticides, heavy machinery or artificial irrigation systems are allowed on the 279 acre sand dune site.

Green keeper Euan Grant told the paper: “There is no artificial drainage anywhere on the course and the green keeping team is not allowed to use fertiliser, pesticides or any plant growth regulators on areas other than the greens and tees. We are not allowed to manage the rest of the site at all really other than mowing the fairways. Even the roughs are managed by sheep.”

More on the Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club website here.

Photo credit: Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club