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GolfNow’s Top 3 Eco-Friendly Courses


As a tribute to Earth Day today, we’re recognizing three of our partner golf courses that are going to great lengths to be environmentally friendly truly put the “green” in golf course.

crystal springs

This San Francisco-area course sits within a 32,000-acre wildlife refuge and shares its home with many species of native plants and animals like deer and birds. Photo by Crystal Springs

Crystal Springs Golf Course (Burlingame, Calif.) – Located 20 minutes from downtown San Francisco, Crystal Springs Golf Course is a very unique golfing experience set in a 32,000-acre wildlife refuge. The allure of the course is the fact that it shares its home with so many species of native plants and animals like deer and birds.

Crystal Springs sits above three giant reservoirs that house a combined 14 billion gallons of the city’s drinking water, making protecting the water a top priority, especially during the recent drought. To help with these efforts, the course’s irrigation system works to keeps the pollutants at bay, and Crystal Springs restricts the use of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and fertilizer.

The restrooms are solar-powered, recycling is paramount and there are water-conserving composting facilities on site. Crystal Springs has won numerous awards for its environmental efforts, including being named to Forbes’ Top-Eco-Friendly golf courses list for 2014.

 

Stone Creek GC

Stone Creek Golf Club near Portland earned the National Environmental Leaders in Golf Award in 2008 for its eco-friendly efforts. Photo by Stone Creek Super

Stone Creek Golf Club (Oregon City, Ore.) – Found in the outskirts of Portland, this Peter Jacobsen/Jim Hardy design meanders through magnificent Douglas Fir trees, small lakes and four wetlands areas.

Winner of the 2008 National Environmental Leaders in Golf Award, Stone Creek created natural wildlife corridors to limit the disturbance to the surrounding wildlife and incorporates a state-of-the-art pest management program that limits the use of pesticides and only irrigates the in-play areas. The outer portions of the course are left to grow natural, which provide a serene nesting habitat for many ground nesting birds during the summer months.

Ranked by Links Magazine as a Top-10 Green Course, Stone Creek is a steal at $36 to play (walking rate) during the week.

 

Part of the world-renowned Audubon International Sanctuary Program, Talking Stick Golf Club takes pride in its environmental policies. Photo by Talking Stick

Part of the world-renowned Audubon International Sanctuary Program, Talking Stick Golf Club takes pride in its environmental policies. Photo by Talking Stick

Talking Stick Golf Club (Scottsdale, Ariz.) – The highly-acclaimed Talking Stick Golf Club is home to award-winning courses and part of the world-renowned Audubon International Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. Located on and owned by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the North and South golf courses blend with their tranquil desert surroundings.

Talking Stick takes pride in its policies that focus on environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, outreach and education, chemical use reduction and safety, water conservation, and water quality. The resort also has a special conservation water usage policy that waters the course in the middle of the Sonoran Desert sparingly to conserve the precious water supply during the scalding Arizona summer.

2 responses to “GolfNow’s Top 3 Eco-Friendly Courses”

  1. A.j. Ali says:

    These courses are fantastic! I hope to visit them during my Wellness 101 50-State Challenge in my quest to explore the most eco-friendly golf courses and find the healthiest golfers in America! Great job, GolfNow!

  2. sk says:

    They look awesome!! It’s great to see golf courses adopt sustainable practices! Green golf courses are certainly the way to go and we hope more golf courses follow! #Howgreenisyourgreen SK

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