{"id":356,"date":"2009-09-09T16:53:45","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T23:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=356"},"modified":"2011-03-02T17:19:52","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T00:19:52","slug":"approaching-the-green-golf-courses-designed-for-birdies-and-other-fauna-and-flora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/356\/approaching-the-green-golf-courses-designed-for-birdies-and-other-fauna-and-flora","title":{"rendered":"Approaching the Green: Golf Courses Designed for birdies\u2014and other fauna and flora"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"15henv

Oitavos Dunes, photo by Aiden Bradley<\/p><\/div>\n

Grass isn\u2019t the only thing that\u2019s green about golf courses these days.\u00a0 The industry has undertaken tremendous efforts to develop courses that use less water and chemicals, preserve wetlands and forests, protect wildlife, and even reclaim degraded land, such as EPA Superfund sites.\u00a0 Here are nine environmentally responsible layouts that you can feel good about even if you play them badly.<\/p>\n

Six Degrees of Turf Management<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Two hours east of Kansas City,<\/strong> Colbert Hills Golf Course\u2014designed by tour pro Jim Colbert\u2014 is affiliated with Kansas State University so that researchers can directly gauge the effects of golf on the environment in a realistic setting.\u00a0 Students who can\u2019t make the golf team can still earn degrees in turf management. \u00a0www.colberthills.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pushing the Manila Envelope<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forest Hills Golf and Country Club, east of Manila<\/strong>, is certified by Audubon International as a Cooperative Sanctuary golf course.\u00a0 Certified courses meet required standards for protecting water quality, conserving natural resources, and providing wildlife habitat, among other things.\u00a0 More than 2,110 courses in 24 countries have qualified.\u00a0 Forest Hills includes 18 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus with an added nine by Arnold Palmer. \u00a0www.golflivingph.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Raining Champion or Please Don\u2019t Squeeze the Shaman<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Trent Jones II\u2019s The Golf Club at Rainmakers, two hours from Albuquerque, is named to honor a twelfth- century shaman who was responsible for managing the precious commodity of water.\u00a0 The course features a weather station that controls low-distribution sprinkler heads that water only when necessary, and all fairways and greens were treated with a polymer that absorbs, holds, and cools water, thereby requiring 30% less irrigation. \u00a0www.rainmakersusa.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Graphite Shafts<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Southeast of Lexington, KY<\/strong>, StoneCrest Golf Course is built on the former site of a vast strip coal mine.\u00a0 Though the mountaintop was cleared of all vegetation and blasted away during mining days, today you can blast a driver off the tees of this links-style muni and dig deep for pars among 50 bunkers and five ponds. \u00a0www.stonecrestprestonburg.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Family Planning<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

At Oitavos Dunes, outside Lisbon<\/strong>, Arthur Hills\/Steve Forrest helped create the first Audubon Certified Gold Sanctuary golf course outside the US, on land owned by the Champalimaud family for generations.\u00a0 The architects protected forests of umbrella pines, rolling dunes, and coastal transition areas, and no buildings will ever block the ocean views from this course that is as charming and challenging as it is natural. www.quintadamarinha-oitavosgolfe.pt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Firing at the Pin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Just up Lake Michigan from Milwaukee<\/strong>, Whistling Straits Golf Course sits atop an abandoned military base.\u00a0 Pete Dye created this windswept links venue by shaping the entire topography out of imported sand.\u00a0 The course was good enough to host the PGA Championship. \u00a0www.destinationkohler.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dry Idea<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Several hours south of San Diego<\/strong> or north of Loreto<\/strong> on Mexico\u2019s Baja Peninsula, Las Caras de Mexico Golf Course is part of an eco development that features 3,000 solar lots, straw bale house construction, and other environmental features.\u00a0 Located in an area with three inches of rainfall per year, the golf course uses a salt-tolerant hybrid grass that can be watered from brackish wells.\u00a0 17,500 acres are also managed as green space. \u00a0www.lascarasdemexico.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Green Course\u2014Literally<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Most golfers know the Black Course at New York<\/strong>\u2019s Bethpage State Park (two hours east of Manhattan) as a host of the US Open.\u00a0 But this world-class municipal facility\u2019s Green Course\u2014designed in 1928 by Devereux Emmett\u2014is even greener now.\u00a0 Management is currently experimenting on the putting surfaces to determine whether they can be maintained to playable standards with smaller amounts of chemicals, or none at all. www.nysparks.state.ny.us\/golf\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To the Manoir Born<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Two hours east of Quebec<\/strong>, Fairmont\u2019s Manoir Richelieu Golf Club is proof that a luxury brand can operate with an environmental ethic.\u00a0 With 18 holes designed by Herbert Strong in 1925, and nine more added recently by Darrell Huxham, the Manoir courses are part of Fairmont\u2019s Green Partnership Program.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also see blue here: the sparkling blue of the St. Lawrence River, which the golf holes seem to plunge into via dramatic elevation changes. \u00a0www.fairmontgolf.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grass isn\u2019t the only thing that\u2019s green about golf courses these days.\u00a0 The industry has undertaken tremendous efforts to develop… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2227,4007,4029,4907,5048,17],"tags":[5752,5759,5753,5754,5755,299,944173,2850,439,5756,2265,5757,5750,1391,5751,5758],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fairmont-hotels","category-robert-trent-jones-ii","category-hills-forrest","category-oregon-golf-assoc","category-alternative-golf-assoc","category-courses-and-travel","tag-jim-colbert","tag-fairmont-manoir-richelieu","tag-forest-hills-golf-and-country-club","tag-rainmakers-golf-club","tag-stonecrest-golf","tag-oitavos-dunes","tag-hills-forrest","tag-whistling-straits","tag-pete-dye","tag-las-caras-de-mexico-golf","tag-robert-trent-jones-jr","tag-bethpage-green","tag-green-golf-courses","tag-bethpage-black","tag-colbert-hills","tag-devereux-emmett"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2009\/09\/15henv-Oitavos.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}