Other Design Elements

Roads, cart paths and car parks

The more that paved surfaces are designed in to a golf development, the more resources consumed and the heavier the environmental footprint. Minimising the amount of additional surface features such as roads, cart paths and car parks will minimise the environmental load caused by their construction and use. In the case of cart paths, designing a walkable course may negate or reduce the need for them, which in turn reduces short-term construction impacts and long-term fuel usage.

Where car parks, paths and roads are integral to the development, the designer should try to minimise their impact. Pervious materials, such as recycled gravels, aggregates, road planings, and geotextiles made from recycled plastics and other fabrics allow rainwater filtration and minimize waste water. When water runoff is inevitable, catch drains can harvest, treat and detain the flow for use in irrigation and equipment washing.

Cart paths also tend to create a visual intrusion on the game. Creating invisible cart path systems of geotextile or growing-cell materials allow them to carry wear without dominating the aesthetic. Further, locating cart paths discretely helps avoid visual intrusion and a disconnect between playing surface and adjoining vegetation. Alternatively, cart paths can contribute to the visual aesthetic when made of local materials, such as cobbles or slate.

Bunkers

Determining the location, form and overall number of bunkers is one of the most sensitive aspects of golf course design — and one that can have huge resource implications for construction and on-going maintenance. Sand bunkers are one option for golfing hazards, but they are not an essential component.

Certainly, bunkering should not come at the expense of other more natural and less impacting forms of hazard that might be more appropriate to the site, or even already exist on the site, such natural sandscapes, open water, wetlands, ditches, rough grasslands, rock outcrops and knolls. Bunkers needn't be over-stylised or over-worked.

Tee and green complexes

As well as being of huge importance in defining the identity of the course, and being perhaps the most scrutinised areas in terms of playability and enjoyment, the detailed design of tees and greens are also critical components in integrating the course into the landscape, in the levels of resource consumption the course will require, and also in the degree of risk the course poses to water quality (siting in proximity to water courses). Tee areas in particular often have considerably more turfgrass than is needed (for instance, behind or to the sides).

Clubhouses and other buildings

The clubhouse communicates the uniqueness of a course when a sustainability-focused architect designs in features that reflect local character together with environment-friendly building principles.

The key principle of passive building design can do much to design out short and long-term consumption of materials and resources. The architect should pay attention to siting and orientation of the clubhouse, for example, and how it fits into the overall landscape. One developer, who has built courses in a variety of locations, uses shady and naturally ventilated locations for clubhouses and restaurants in hot regions; in cold climates he places buildings in sunny and sheltered areas that benefit from solar radiation and avoid the wind. Other green building principles include site stewardship and protection, rainwater harvesting and water conservation, use of sustainable materials, energy supply and conservation, and sustainable construction practices. Some real-world examples include the use of a ground-source heating system for a clubhouse. Although the system cost $20,000 more up front, it will pay for itself in five years. Another example is a photovoltaic panel system for a clubhouse roof. One golf course reduced electricity use from the public grid by 25 per cent, saving €4000 per year, with a nine-year payback period and 30-year life expectancy.

The maintenance centre offers another excellent opportunity to integrate best practice methods to provide ecological benefit. Care should be focused on designing areas for chemical storage, washing, fuelling, and mixing and loading. The filling of sprayer tanks and refuelling in particular should take place on impermeable surfaces.