Our Driving the Green community creates a future for golf to be a bridge of social equity, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability in the communities where the game lives.
Municipal golf can become an inspiring cornerstone of how municipalities meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In the latest edition of our Sustainability Spotlight Series, we are excited to share the process, results and methodology behind the National Links Trust’s first materiality assessment and stakeholder survey, and how we used the UN SDG framework to prioritize NLT’s current and future sustainable development programs in Washington, D.C.
We spoke with Andrew Glen, Superintendent at KDV Sports Complex on the Gold Coast of Australia to learn more about his one-of-a-kind, 100% organic golf course and how to make organic golf scalable across the industry.
At least 35% of the food we eat is directly dependent on the pollination services of bees. With their numbers in decline, might a symbiotic relationship with golf be the change needed to restore their numbers?
Can the secret ingredient to fertile grasslands be the key to golf courses creating engineered carbon sinks? Will Bowden of New Zealand Turf Management Solutions seems to think so.
A thoughtfully regenerative golf course balances Soil, Water, Air, Life and Energy as one interconnected operating system, providing playable golf alongside ecological value and ecosystem services in service of people, planet and profit, or in our terms, business, biology and being. Regenerative “Air” management is about managing a course's nutrient (and specifically gas) exchanges without compromising the playability that keeps the land in golf. Management practices aim to get nutrients into the rootzone below ground while moving the property toward net carbon storage (through roots and biomass).
Not accounting for clubhouse operations, the typical golf course requires about the carbon footprint of 33 passenger vehicles annually for its turfgrass maintenance. Evidence supports that a mature golf course is typically a modest net carbon source, but with improvements to operating efficiency and engineering carbon sinks on-site, golf courses can become carbon-regenerative or “go low” on the carbon scorecard. This article looks across the latest turfgrass (and golf) industry research to estimate what that takes.
Discover from AgSource how soil health is shaping the future of regenerative golf. From soil testing and turfgrass biology to water conservation, nutrient efficiency, and better playability, learn how golf courses can use data-driven soil management to reduce inputs, build resilience, and create healthier playing surfaces from the ground up.
Golf is enjoying its best financial run in twenty years: record participation, record rounds, and real pricing power. But the industry's own data shows its biggest levers flattening, from water efficiency gains slowing to 3.2% since 2020 to a demographic tailwind with a published expiration date. This article introduces the Five Wealths Framework, a regenerative business model for golf courses that treats Financial, Natural, Human, Social, and Cultural Wealth as interconnected accounts that compound together. Drawing on NGF, NGCOA, and GCSAA research, it offers golf owners and operators a practical lens for converting today's record revenues into soil health, staff retention, community trust, and a brand story that builds durable, long-term value. The question isn't whether your golf business is converting one form of wealth into another. It's whether you're doing it consciously.
Award-winning golf architect Paul Jansen points to a statistic that should reshape the future of golf course design: roughly 75% of golf shots are played within 125 yards of the hole. If most of the game happens inside a wedge’s reach, why do so many golf facilities continue to prioritize long holes, large footprints, and resource-intensive maintenance models? Short-format golf (including par-3 courses, pitch-and-putt courses, putting courses, short-game areas, and night-lit golf experiences) offers a more accessible, sustainable, and profitable model for the future of the golf industry.
After decades of designing around the 25% of the game played beyond wedge range, the next generation of successful golf facilities will be built around the 75%: the scoring shots, feel shots, and beginner-friendly experiences that grow participation, improve revenue per acre, reduce environmental impact, and welcome more people into golf.
In this Driving the Green interview, NanoOxygen Systems founder Ron Pote explains how water quality and dissolved oxygen influence sustainable golf course management. Drawing from projects like East Lake Golf Club, the conversation explores how improving irrigation water can enhance turf health, soil biology, and golf course sustainability while reducing chemical inputs and water use. By mimicking the oxygen-rich qualities of rainwater, new technologies may help superintendents manage irrigation ponds, reclaimed water, and turf systems more holistically (supporting both environmental performance and golf course profitability).
If we cast our gaze from the conventional wisdom of golf course management over to the quickly ballooning adoption of regenerative principles and practices in agriculture, we may find ways, completely out of the box, to think about and manage our courses differently (and perhaps a lot more profitably).