Sustainable Golf at Milngavie Golf Club

Basic principles of Sustainable golf

Since my arrival at Milngavie golf club in May 2001. It has always been my top priority (along with the highest standards of presentation) to make the club sustainable in the face of the ever decreasing range of chemicals/pesticides available now and with a view to fewer and probably NO chemicals available for use against Fungal disease and turf pests in the near future .
The policies and practices we introduced in 2001 have in recent years been taken on board by the R&A and are now recommended for use by forward thinking golf clubs.
The basic principles of the sustainable golf club model are as follows:

Minimum fertiliser inputs
That is to say finer grasses i.e. Bents and fescues thrive in soil conditions of much lower fertility than the weed grass Poa Annua (Meadow Grass) which many courses are dominated by due to poor management. It is of the utmost importance that excess fertiliser is not applied in an attempt to force growth. It is all too easy for a weak course manager to bow to pressure from members because the course down the road has "great greens at the moment." Please remember that green does not mean great. When was the last time you seen the British open played on lush greens? Lush and green usually means overfed weed grass and major problems in the future. It is worth considering how many courses, managed in this way, have had to rebuild greens in the last few years and then ask yourself why?
Also, ask yourself, if the course management style which forced the rebuilds in the first place has now changed?

Minimum Pesticide use
Many golf clubs rely heavily on the use of pesticides to control turf pests and diseases. Many of these disease outbreaks are due to course management decisions, of applying excessive fertilisers to promote colour and growth, particularly at inappropriate times, leading to conditions favoring weed grasses that are highly susceptible to many turf diseases.

Minimum irrigation
Not such a big issue in the west of Scotland! Having said that great care must be taken to only apply irrigation amounts to enable survival of turf not to make greens hold! Once again weed grasses thrive in areas that are constantly wet.

Creating an environment for Bent and Fescues to become the dominant species
Frequent light topdressing of greens to create a free draining turf layer and frequent aeration are vital for the creation of conditions for fine grasses to dominate. We must strive to topdress our greens with a minimum of 120 tonnes per annum, applied throughout the Spring, Summer and early Autumn period.

How Sustainable is Milngavie Golf Club in 2008

Firstly, I must say very sustainable!
There are many factors that indicate our strong sustainability, below are a few examples.

 The club has not had to resort to the use of any pesticides for a turf grass disease outbreak in the last three years. As far as I am aware MGC is the only course in the area (west central Scotland) that can honestly say that is the case. This has great implications for the future, as the chemical range for use in turf grass problems is ever decreasing and is already totally banned in several European countries. Golf clubs that continue with course management programmes that rely heavily on chemical inputs to solve turf grass problems will find themselves facing possible devastation of playing surfaces ,
The financial implications of pesticide use are also significant with an average golf club spend of £7500 on chemical controls per Annum. MGC spend in the last three years has been £000!
Our ability to control disease outbreaks and their frequency is solely dependent on the implication of the management programme we have been using over the last seven years. Outbreaks of disease were severe in the years before the implementation and always required chemical intervention to cure the problem. Due to management strategies, outbreaks have been reduced year on year.

 During the almost eight years of the average grass species make up of our greens has gone from 80% Poa 16% Bent grass 4% Fescue in 2001 to 72% Bent grass 20% Poa and 8% Fescue. The implications of this are very simple Poa will become unsustainable as a grass species on golf courses in the future, due to its requirement of excessive inputs of Fertiliser, water and chemical to maintain it.

 In 2004 MGC was chosen as one of 100 golf clubs in the UK to be studied by the STRI to establish their plans for sustainability and climate change. The finding of this year long study commended MGC for its work in these areas and the report quotes "It is pleasing to report that the work you have done to date is amongst the best we have seen, Keep up the good work" . This praise was for our work in all areas but in particularly with regards to greens and our Spruce tree removal programme.

 Over the last 3 years we have strived to reduce our carbon footprint with regards to sourcing fertilisers, sands, grass seed and all golf course consumables. We now source all of these items from companies based in Scotland and many are from renewable sources or recycled materials. This has also reduced our product miles travelled by 42%

 During the past seven years around 300 Spruce trees have been removed from the golf course. This has had quite a dramatic ecological effect on the microclimates of our golf course. As well as allowing vital sunlight and airflow to greens, tees and fairways which in turn vastly improves drainage and the encouragement of fine grasses, it also helps prevent disease outbreaks and is a major factor in the breakdown of thatch. The removal of these trees allows native flora and fauna the re-colonise areas that had become barren over the years due to the planting of alien tree species. A fact worth considering is that an Oak tree is beneficial to 200 Scottish native species whereas the Spuce is beneficial to 0

CONCLUSION
I hope this gives an insight into the work we are undertaking, with regards to ensuring Milngavie Golf Club has sustainable golf.
We should all feel proud and be safe in the knowledge that we are part of a Golf Club which is striving to ensure its future in what will be extremely challenging times. We can all be secure in the knowledge that we are already in a position to cope with the changing Laws and ever increasing environmental pressures. We will continue to improve our sustainability to ensure we will always have a golf course in the best condition possible despite the inevitable restrictions that will become apparent all too soon.
These will have huge implications to all Clubs who have not taken the steps to ensure there course is sustainable. Unfortunately for such clubs sustainable golf is impossible to achieve in a short space of time. Therefore such clubs will find themselves in an unenviable position, with the very real possibility of severe detrimental impact for their golf courses.

W Wallace Wilson, Head Greenkeeper
Milngavie Golf Club