Abstract:
Golf is a precision sport and it is expected that there will be a trend in increasing the
number of golfers playing in Sri Lanka, and perhaps new Golf courses to cater to the
increasing demand, particularly among tourists, with the major development drive
maintained by the government.
Even though a golf course can contribute to the sustainability of the ecosystem, it
may lead to many environmental risks associated with the activities of the golf courses,
unless there are safeguards to protect the environment through proper environmental policies
and practices, which can be adopted by all stakeholders, including the staff, clients and
visitors of the Golf Course. To achieve the international standards while minimizing the
environmental risks associated with them, it is necessary to have an environmental
management system for golf courses. Even though the Government of Sri Lanka requires
Environmental Imapact Assessments to be carried out for new Golf Courses, there are no
monitoring regulations for operation of Golf Courses. Interviews with management staff of
the Colombo Golf Club revealed that there is no proper environmental guideline for the golf
courses in Sri Lanka at present. It is imperative to develop an environmental guideline and
self assessment method suitable for adoption for Golf Courses in Sri Lanka, to ensure proper
practices during the operation of the courses before any further damage is done to the
environment.
This study was carried out to develop an environmental guideline for Sri Lankan
golf courses and a self assessment method in order to assist the management of the courses
to evaluate their own operations against benchmarks and identify weak areas and take
corrective actions where necessary.
Review of literature revealed that there are diverse methods adopted by golf courses
in USA, UK, Canada and Australia in order to minimize environmental risks caused by Golf
Course operations. Having understood the commitment to safeguard the environment in golf
courses by the developed countries, it was decided to develop a questionnaire to assess the
situation with respect to various aspects of the operation of golf courses relevant to Sri
Lanka, and provide guidelines for improvement of the weak areas.
General information regarding the operations was collected by using a general
questionnaire. After evaluating the methods used in the developed countries, it was decided
that the most appropriate method suitable for adoption for the Sri Lankan situation was the
Environmental Quotient Questionnaire method for self assessment used by the Unites States
Air Force (USAF) and guidelines for preparation of a supporting document such as the
Breckland Pines Golf Course Environmental Management Plan.
The model questionnaire was prepared with 50 questions in ten subcategories, based
on the relevant environmental aspects. The aspects covered were: policy, planning, wildlife
& wildlife habitats, clubhouse operations, pest control, pesticide use, fertilizer use, water
quality & use, safety and education & awareness. Even though the USAF self assessment
method used equal weightages for all environmental aspects, it was decided to factor-in the
importance of the aspects of the overall environmental profile of the local situation by giving
weights to each category.
Since all questions were of the type with three possible answers (yes/no/partial), the
weights assigned to each aspect were reflected in the final total marks by varying the number
of questions in each category. The number of questions was adjusted several times in order
to achieve the intended purpose of capturing the importance as well as the status of
environmental management of the golf courses. Thus, after several modifications, the model
of the ECQ questionnaire was developed to a satisfactory level to be tested using field data.
The final assessment of the Golf Course was obtained as a percentage of the possible 100%
if all 50 questions yielded positive answers, as two results - the actual ECQ (only 'yes'
answers) and potential ECQ ('yes' and 'partial' answers). This questionnaire was tested
with the data of Royal Colombo Golf Course (RCGC) and after minor modifications based
on the results of the test, it was used to assess the other golf courses in the country.
Benchmark values were also proposed for the status of the Golf Course depending on the
ECQ values as per the table below.
Total Yes or Partial response Environmental compatibility Level
90% - 100% Advance
70% - 89% Showing Progress
40% - 69% Getting Started
39% or Less Urgent action needed
The results of the assessment were compared to the actual status of the Golf courses
as perceived by the employees and users of the courses, and were found to be comparable,
which showed that the ECQ provided a reliable assessment of the environmental status of the
Golf Course, and helped to identify the weak areas that needed urgent attention as well as
long term improvements.
Ten environmental best practice guidelines were prepared under the topics of policy,
planning, wildlife & wildlife habitats, clubhouse operations, pest control, pesticide use,
fertilizer use, water quality & use, safety and education & awareness, in order to help the
Golf Course management to prepare their own Environmental Management Plans for present
and future courses.
The final recommendation is to use the ECQ method to assess the current status of
existing courses, prepare an environmental management plan for each golf course using the
guidelines and to monitor the golf courses annually with the self assessment method, in order
to continually improve the ECQ and thus enhance the environmental performance of the
Golf Course.