Golf courses in southern Florida are playing an active role in preserving and protecting water resources and quality.

Broward County, which has almost 100 courses within its boundaries, and the South Florida Water Management District have created a voluntary programme under which courses that implement best management practices for water management can be recognised.

Parkland Golf and Country Club, designed by Greg Norman’s firm and opened in 2004, is one such course. Evaluators cited the course’s design, which mimics the natural characteristics of the area, with separate areas of planting to provide three different habitats, cypress swamp, low hammock and pine flatland. The course, developed by WCI, was bought by Toll Brothers last November.

“As impressive as the facility's layout is, it was the attention to the environmental BMPs that truly made a lasting impression, including the wide expanses of vegetation that reduce erosion and improve water quality, and the crushed shell cart paths that reduce impervious surfaces and runoff from the site,” said Asif Ali, a natural resources specialist at the Florida Natural Resources Planning and Management Division..