Golf Course Architecture - Issue 66, October 2021

50 SAND CR I S I S that we have known it for more than a century. But, at the same time, golf is a tiny speck on the overall global map of sand users, with the construction and civil engineering sectors dwarfing golf. When something is strategically important to you, but you have effectively no inf luence over the market, you are in a difficult position. “Sand supply for golf is suffering, as suppliers are more interested in producing for concrete,” says Scottish- based contractor David Nelson of Greenmakers by Nelson & Vecchio. “The price is very localised depending on each country or area’s natural resources, but across the board, we have seen a price increase of 30-40 per cent in the last five years. And also, as the sand becomes harder to extract from the ground, it becomes more expensive for the end user.” As all greenkeepers and golf construction specialists know, sand is not just sand. The apparently insane practice of shipping sand into desert countries for golf courses there is not as crazy as it might seem, because desert sand particles, eroded by wind rather than water, are too smooth and rounded to pack down in the right way for green construction or bunker use. For golf usage, angular particles that lock together are sought after. Unfortunately for golf, precisely the same issue applies for construction purposes. Angular sand is typically sourced and extracted from seabeds, coastlines, quarries and rivers around the world, and it is these sources, as Dr Gallagher points out, that are coming under most pressure. “But the truth is that it’s not about source, it’s about performance,” she says. “We are looking for material that will perform in a certain way, and we need to let go of the idea that it needs to be from a particular source, especially rivers. There is evidence that high- value sands are becoming more of a tradeable commodity – we are hearing more about international trade in sand – especially in places like Singapore and the Middle East that are resource- poor in appropriate sands. We know that transport and fuel costs are very key in terms of demand for sand, but if people are shipping the stuff long distances it’s not a good sign. Because of a global tightening of environmental regulations, the material might be there, but getting access to it is becoming harder in some areas.” So, the question for golf is how to deal with a world in which sand is harder to find and more expensive when you do find it? Sam Thomas of the Golf Environment Organization (GEO) says that the industry is really only in the very early stages of Loch Lomond in Scotland sandcapped its course to address chronic drainage problems “ It does surprise me that the USGA has done nothing on exploring alternatives to sand – or for that matter peat”