In a world where golf course conditioning and playability is seen by players (both those who travel and the stay-at-home golfers) in global terms, the reintroduction, by the R&A, of its world-class turf management certification to India is great news for golf on the sub-continent. The initiative will offer experienced Indian greenkeepers, a structured pathway to elevate both their technical expertise and leadership capabilities, while helping to improve the overall levels of course conditioning in the region.

Golfers in South Africa are fortunate in being able to ‘dodge’ inclement seasons by moving around the country. So, when it is wet and miserable mid-year in the Cape, or freezing cold on the highveld, you can pack up your golf clubs and go to KwaZulu-Natal, and reverse the process during KwaZulu-Natal’s Indian Ocean coastline’s humid summer months. Europe has its own ‘go-to’ option in Gran Canaria, which has established itself Europe’s best year-round golf destination.

BG Magazine’s Media & Marketing discussion is with the recently retired COO of the DP World Tour, which runs the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, and an event’s sustainability is a key discussion item. An event’s sustainability also applies is terms of environmental impacts, and the Genesis Scottish Open, was one of the most sustainable golf tournaments ever staged, when it rolled out an ambitious hydrogen and solar power programme, wherein significant sections of the tournament site at the host venue were powered by green hydrogen and solar energy.

Shredding old golf balls, as an aggregate to use in making concrete, is one example of innovation and recycling at its best! Globally, it is estimated that anywhere between 3 billion to 5 billion golf balls are lost every year, and because they are constructed with synthetic rubber cores and plastic polymer covers, these millions of errant shots have a significant environmental impact. A single lost golf ball can take between 100 to 1,000 years to decompose, slowly leaching microplastics and chemicals into soil and water hazards over time.

Are golf carts (off the golf course areas) a boon or a curse? Many residents who see the indiscriminate use of these vehicles, which has proliferated into their being used as a general form of transport, especially by ‘unruly’ adolescents, might see them very much as a curse. Estate Living explores this arena, and how HOAs try to manage carts’ use, which can be complicated by the fact that some internal roads within estates are often public thoroughfares, and therefore subject to national traffic regulations.