Feature: On the Green

Scott Kauffman

11/01/2006

In the words of the late Rodney Dangerfield, who played that classic country club golfer from the iconic movie Caddyshack, golf gets no respect. At least that has been the long-standing case from the environmental point of view. And it is understandable, considering golf’s historic reputation as an elitist sport and the common perception that courses do nothing but consume gluttonous amounts of precious water and dangerous chemicals.

The Masters Tournament played each year at Augusta National, home to one of the most exclusive private clubs in the world, does not help matters when it broadcasts images of beautiful blooming azaleas and lush fairways and greens—strengthening the public’s notion that all golf courses look like this, or should. Golf insiders even refer to this as the “Augusta National syndrome.”

But golfers—and a growing number of nongolfers—are beginning to understand that many golf courses are actually more friend than foe of the environment. One environmental organization that understands this well is Audubon International, a nonprofit agency based in Selkirk, N.Y., that started registering golf courses in its Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program in 1991. Today, the program has 2,243 Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary members, 2,135 of which are golf courses, according to program manager Joellen Zeh.

WCI’s Raptor Bay in Bonita Springs, Fla., by Raymond Floyd. (Click image to enlarge)

Of the 2,135 golf course members, 576 have the distinction of being Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries, an honor members earn by implementing and documenting extensive efforts in five environmental quality areas: Wildlife and Habitat Management, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, Water Quality Management, and Outreach and Education.

Not to be confused with the famous National Audubon Society, Audubon International is the brainchild of career environmentalist Ron Dodson. A onetime regional vice president for the National Audubon Society, Dodson started his own group after growing tired of the “incendiary, anti-growth rhetoric of old.

“After 20 years of environmental advocacy, I realized we weren’t moving the agenda,” says Dodson, whose organization also certifies entire real estate developments, small towns or practically any entity committed to the concept of sustainable living. “I spent years suing people, and I kept seeing the same people over and over,” he says. “I thought maybe we needed a different approach.”

That approach was to become environmental partners, rather than adversaries, with the very interests often portrayed as eco-enemies: real estate and golf course developers. The changed attitude worked.

Old Palm, another Floyd/WCI course, in Palm Beach. Photograph by John Johnson Photography/WCI Communities, Inc. (Click image to enlarge)

A year after Audubon International began certifying golf courses, it started the popular Signature (Cooperative Sanctuary) Program for courses in the planning and developmental stages. The Signature Program, comprising Bronze, Silver and Gold certification, entails a much more comprehensive level of environmental planning and standards, and a significant $9,500 to $12,000 fee to join.Among the minimum standards required for Signature Program certification are drainage systems that must first filter all water that will then be piped into any body of water; maintenance buildings with separate pesticide storage areas; and covered, self-contained fuel islands and wash pad facilities where irrigation water used to rinse off mowers and other maintenance equipment is captured and cleaned by high-tech filters, then recycled back onto the golf course. Today, according to Zeh, there are 148 active members in the Signature Program, 61 of which are certified as either Bronze, Silver or Gold courses.

The ninth hole at Bonita Bay Group’s Bay Island, designed by Arthur Hills. The course is a model for conservation-focused luxury links. Photograph by The Bonita Bay Group. (Click image to enlarge)

For people like Joel Blaker, director of agronomy for the upscale Tahoe Mountain Resorts in Truckee, Calif., Audubon’s Signature Program is a great opportunity to showcase the golf industry in a different light and dispel all those negative perceptions. Blaker has already built one course, Old Greenwood, to Gold Signature status, and is in the process of adding a second, the private Gray’s Crossing, scheduled to open next June.

“People don’t understand the positive impact we have on the environment,” says Blaker, whose Old Greenwood course is one of just 12 Gold-certified courses in the world and the only one in California. “There’s huge wildlife out on our courses because we have massive amounts of wildlife corridors and habitat. Also, turfgrass is nature’s best filter. It filters the storm water runoff from the entire development—all the water that’s being irrigated—and it recharges the groundwater system. It doesn’t pollute it.

“Plus, with all the advances we’ve made with turfgrass research and the new technologies we have in construction and other practices…we’re becoming more environmentally friendly. For instance, we have new turfgrass varieties that use less water and they’re more disease resistant, so they need fewer pesticides. All of these new standards—together with the environmental standards already in place—add up to the golf course being a benefit to the environment, not a negative.

In his design for Old Greenwood in Lake Tahoe, Jack Nicklaus strove to integrate the course with its natural surroundings. Photograph by East West Partners. (Click image to enlarge)

Two of the biggest supporters of these sentiments, and of Audubon International in general, are Florida-based WCI Communities and the Bonita Bay Group, two of the country’s leading developers of private high-end golf course communities. WCI believes so strongly in Audubon International that it signed a $1.4 million contract four years ago to develop 10 future “sustainable communities,” including 12 courses currently enrolled in the Gold Signature Program (five are already certified, one of which is the first-ever resort course, Raptor Bay Golf Club in Bonita Springs, Fla.).

“Nature is an amenity,” says Karen Childress, environmental stewardship manager for WCI. “Whenever we can save nature and offer it as an amenity, it’s a win-win financially and environmentally.”

At the Bonita Bay Group, six of the company’s private courses are certified, including Bonita Bay Club East, the world’s first private 36-hole Audubon Signature Cooperative Sanctuary (Bronze status), and Mediterra, the first 36-hole Silver Signature Sanctuary.

“The difference between environmental agendas from the normal regulatory views and Audubon International is that Audubon International has gotten people to voluntarily move down the pathway of environmental stewardship rather than adversely trying to beat people into doing it,” says Ed Rodgers, who formerly oversaw Bonita Bay Group’s golf operations.Before Audubon International, Rodgers adds, “Nobody championed the cause of golf course superintendents and the golf industry.”

Hammock Bay greens are bordered by drought-tolerant landscaping and native trees. Photograph by WCI Communities, Inc. (Click image to enlarge)

That’s one reason former golf course superintendent John Kopack was such a staunch supporter of Audubon International when he oversaw the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes in Longwood, Fla., an upscale private community developed by Taylor Woodrow.

“We didn’t get any extra rounds of golf out of Audubon status, and we didn’t get any extra members,” says Kopack, whose former club, a certified Bronze Signature Sanctuary, is now under the ownership of Heritage Golf. “What Audubon International did was give us the opportunity to showcase our environmental stewardship.”

David Lucas, longtime chairman of the Bonita Bay Group, says eco-conscious sustainable living within the confines of an upscale gated golf community is no passing fancy.

“The thing that we’re committed to is environmental sensitivity and attention to detail and quality,” Lucas adds. “What price it’s going to be or what market segment…the market’s going to tell us where to go.

“But whatever we do, we’re going to try and do it as well as we can and be proud of it. And hope that we’re leaving a legacy.”

Bonita Bay Group, 239.495.1000, www.bonitabaygroup.com
Mediterra, 888.888.1404, www.mediterranaples.com
WCI Communities, 800.924.4005, www.wcicommunities.com
Old Greenwood, 800.754.3070, www.oldgreenwood.com 
Gray’s Crossing, 800.217.7554, www.grayscrossing.com
Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, 407.444.9995, www.legacyclubgolf.com
Audubon International, 518.767.9051, www.auduboninternational.org