Coul Links

Golf’s effect on the environment is something that I didn’t really consider until I heard about the proposal for a golf course at Coul Links. Coul Links is one of the most beautiful dune systems in Scotland and is located near the village of Embo in the Scottish Highlands.

In 2015, American entrepreneur Todd Warnock decided to build a golf course on the links. He called in the best golf course architects around - Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to plan out a course.

But because Coul Links is located in an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) seven environmental groups objected to the plan. Namely, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Wildlife Trust, RSPB Scotland, Plantlife Scotland, Ramblers Scotland, National Trust for Scotland and the International Otter Survival Fund. Because of this, the plan was put on hold, but in 2018 the developers were granted permission by the Highland Council to start work on the course but in August of the same year, the Scottish Government decided to ‘call in’ the decision to be scrutinised at a national level.

In February 2020, the plan was formally refused by the Scottish Government.

Lost Balls

One of the most thrilling aspects of golf is the water hazards. Great golf holes often have a shot where you must play over or alongside a water feature. It all sounds pretty awesome until you think about it this way, thousands of people are firing little pieces of plastic into a pond which could be the home to a whole biodiversity of species and plant-life.

Every year, golf courses sweep the bottom of their water features to collect the balls that have sunk to the bottom. Glen Abbey golf course in Canada says that every year they collect roughly 15,000 golf balls from the bottom of the pond on the third hole. This is bad, but at least all of the golf balls are being collected. The bigger problem is the sea. One of golf’s most iconic holes is the seventh hole at Pebble Beach, California. The green is just next to the Pacific Ocean, which claims many golf balls. This is much worse as you can’t recover the balls from the middle of the ocean, whereas you can from the bottom of a pond. Let’s say that like Glen Abbey around 15,000 balls are hit into the sea every year. This essentially means we are polluting our already damaged oceans with 15,000 pieces of plastic, and that is just on one course.

Conclusion

Golf is a brilliant sport, but ultimately it is a leisure activity and the environment must come above human desires. Some courses like St. Andrews Links are leading great initiatives like protecting the local wildlife around their course. I think that if all golf courses showed this level of concern for the environment, golf could set an example of how to protect our planet and both our world and golf will be here to stay for a long time.