39 Photo: Edwin Roald in turf and its soil, by variables such as soil type and mowing frequency. Also, an effort is made to identify wetlands that may be restored without negatively affecting the golf operation or customer experience. Inevitably, some golf courses will show a negative result. However, scapegoating is not an objective here. Moreover, courses that use wetlands to a certain degree may be in the best position going forward, with the most revenue potential, since the prevention of emissions through wetland reclamation can yield more carbon, per area unit. The emergence of this new economy and currency is bound to change golf course architecture. The already intensifying pressure on land builds even further, with increased land demand for forestry and wetland reclamation projects contributing to higher prices. Emissions from construction will be under greater scrutiny, as therefore will be the scale of earthworks. This should increase the importance of good site selection and f lexible routing, possibly including more responsive hole counts, to steer away from wetlands and thus facilitate their protection or reclamation. Tree removal will not be as widely celebrated. Turf management is getting cleaner, including mowing, which may also become less expensive with automation. Advocates of ‘width and angles’ will rejoice, as minimising the total area of managed turf will no longer be a default position. This may depend on the irrigation water source and associated energy use. On the other hand, carbon sequestration potential will cause us to see irrigation in a new perspective, where it will contribute to the plant’s health, helping it to store carbon. A few golf clubs have recently pledged to achieve carbon neutrality. So far, this has mostly been defined in terms of operations, and not what the land is doing. Considering both, it is possible that a number of golf facilities are not only carbon neutral already, but carbon positive. Being on the right side of par, and getting recognised for being a part of the solution, and not the problem, minimises or entirely avoids future purchases of carbon credits or payments towards carbon offsetting that are bound to become mandatory in the new economy. Depending on how this develops, golf courses that are well located, planned, designed, built and managed have a realistic chance of being seen as carbon sinks. GCA Edwin Roald is an Icelandic golf course designer and is the founder and director of Eureka Golf Borgarnes Golf Course is one of a number of Icelandic courses that is having its carbon status assessed
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