Golf Breaks

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If you don't want to damage the environment, the best places to play golf are the ones where there is plenty of rain to keep the greens fresh without excess watering and fertiliser.

Even watering can cause problems. Washington State in the US for example ordered Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen to close his golf course which had allegedly taken so much water from a nearby river that a rare breed of salmon had died out.

In the Third World the effects of fertilisers can have even more damaging long term effects. It is estimated that in countries like Thailand and India around 1,500 kg of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are need annually to preserve the imported grasses which are planted in place of the native species of plants. The run off often contaminates drinking water.

Water may also be diverted from the local people, making it difficult or impossible for them to farm and causing women to walk hours to fetch water. (One estimate is that one golf course can use as much water as 60,000 rural villagers.)

In addition in Third World countries local people may be thrown off their fertile soil because this is the best for creating golf courses. Interestingly, something similar happened in England where apparently at the turn of the 20th century more common land was enclosed for golf courses than was ever privatised by the infamous enclosures of previous centuries.)

Scotland as home to the game is naturally an ideal spot for the kind of turf required. So is much of France where in the last 20 years the number of courses has quadrupled to 600 while there hasn't been a matching growth in the number of players. This makes these fairways some of the least crowded in the world.

For further information see European Golf Association golfecology.