The words "golfing green" and "environmentally green" usually don’t go together. As an article in the April 1997 issue of Smithsonian magazine asks, "Is carving fairways out of a forest, moving a million cubic yards of seaside sand dunes, or planting thirsty Bermuda grass in desert settings—where a course can quaff up to a million gallons of water a day—an intelligent use of land? Is keeping courses green and free of weeds, brown spots, and bugs worth the liberal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides?" With over 15,000 existing U.S. courses supplemented by an additional 350 new courses per year, the environmental stakes are high.

But a handful of golf courses across the country are daring to be different—to be more environmentally responsible—and are meeting with great success. Among these pioneering courses is Desert Willow, a municipal facility in Palm Desert. Set on city-owned land, and funded with $10 million from Palm Desert’s redevelopment fund, the course tries to stay as true as possible to its desert surroundings, unlike many of its counterparts in the Coachella Valley. Desert Willow makes use of recycled water. Its hills were formed from sand that came from the site, and were modeled after the area’s natural dunes. Grass acreage was kept to a minimum, and much of the landscaping consists of native plants and shrubs.

Some still oppose the development of any and all golf courses, believing that even the "greener" ones are too harmful to the environment. But Michael Hurzdan, one of Desert Willow’s designers, thinks otherwise and says "when we create biodiversity on a golf course, our objectives are mutual." He calls Desert Willow "the most important project" of his career.

Many of these new, "greener" greens are based on principles devised in the mid-1990s by a coalition of seemingly strange bedfellows, including Sierra Club, Rain Bird, the US EPA, and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. They set guidelines intended "to produce environmental excellence in golf course planning and siting, design, construction, maintenance and facility operations."

There is evidence that ecologically-sound courses may be the wave of the future. A project called "The Wildlife Links Program," established in 1995 and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, studies the impact of golf on wildlife and their habitat, and produces conservation manuals for golf superintendents. The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for existing Golf Courses (ACSP) promotes environmentally healthy land management and the conservation of natural resources and provides an advisory information service about how to conduct proactive environmental projects for golf courses. The list of certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Golf Courses is growing each year. With the popularity of golf at record levels—estimates say there are nearly 25 million players in the US—environmentally responsible course design and management is essential.

The environmental principles for golf courses in the United States can be found online, in the "Golf and the Environment" section of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America website (www.gcsaa.org). News about other environmental developments in the golf industry are included in the "Green Section" of the United States Golf Association (www.usga.org). Information about Audubon International’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program is available at www.audubonintl.org/acss/golf.htm. To learn more about Desert Willow Golf Course, go to www.desertwillow.com.