When I started green keeping 18 years ago I didn’t know anything about nature, or golf for that matter, I just wanted to work outside. Over that time, more and more focus has been put onto sustainability and working in ways to benefit nature, and rightly so.
For the past five years a small team of volunteers at Market Harborough Golf Club have, with the support of the club’s board of directors, been following a series of environmental policies and projects ranging from single use plastics and recycling, to LED lighting and on course environmental enhancements.
The energy market is in a state of flux, with businesses across all sectors grappling with rising costs and market volatility. Golf clubs are no exception. The challenges are manifold, from soaring energy prices to significant increases in water costs. However, amidst these challenges, there are opportunities for golf clubs to become more energy-efficient, sustainable, and resilient.
Stonebridge Golf Centre, a renowned golf club, has been working with UtilityWorks for several years. UtilityWorks has managed their entire utilities portfolio, allowing Stonebridge to focus on their core business. The partnership has led to significant savings in time, money, and energy consumption.
Slow worms are neither worms nor, in fact snakes, but a small genus of snake-like legless lizards in the family Anguidae. Its identity is given away by its abilities and blink with its eyelids.
The Hornet Moth (Sesia apiformis) is the largest of our region’s clearwing moths and also one of the rarest. There are currently only seven known colonies within the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland).
As with many clubs, Ullesthorpe Court GC has experienced much badger damage in the last few years, particularly on and around our greens. A couple of methods were attempted, using sprays and smells, but with no success.
Wildlife on golf courses is one of those things that sparks very different reactions among golfers, and sometimes even golf club managers, excluding, of course, the enlightened readers of The Golf Club Secretary!
By the end of this year Cold Ashby Golf Centre will have planted about 650 new native trees. Our aim was to increase biodiversity, create wildlife habitats, strengthen the playing strategy required for some holes and reinforce its attractive landscape.
UPDATED JANUARY 2023: There’s a new Head Greenkeeper at Glen Gorse Golf Club: James Burberry, a passionate wildlife enthusiast, is working with the help of key members like Alan Herbert, on initiatives to benefit nature. The first, and the more unusual, is a project to restore and expand habitats for a local newt population.
Brighton and Hove Golf Club is pleased to invite you to our Nature Links seminar on action being taken by Sussex golf clubs to support nature and help address the biodiversity crisis.
Brighton and Hove Golf Club
15 May 2025, 9am – 4pm
