Long Island Golf Courses Taking Steps To Protect Environment


By David Shefter, USGA

The eastern end of Long Island boasts some of the finest golf courses in the country, including four-time U.S. Open site Shinnecock Hills. Of course, without good maintenance these expansive pieces of real estate wouldn't be so enjoyable to play. This requires golf course superintendents to utilize a variety of resources, including nitrogen-based fertilizers that can enter rivers, lakes, streams and eventually the Atlantic Ocean.

Nitrogen in the water can cause too much algae to grow, which in turn uses up necessary oxygen needed by fish and other species to survive in their natural habitat.

Four-time U.S. Open venue Shinnecock Hills has joined 30 other eastern Long Island golf courses in an effort to reduce fertilizer use to protect the amount of nitrogen that's emitted into local estuaries and waterways. (USGA Photo Archives)

For the past year, agronomists with the USGA Green Section have worked with other national, state and local environmental agencies to develop a plan to reduce amount of fertilizer that's used on these courses to protect the health of the Peconic Estuary and other local waters.

This diligence paid off as 31 of the 34 courses in this region of Long Island (91 percent) have voluntarily accepted the challenge. The first site visit from the USGA Green Section, Cornell University, members of the Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental constituencies came Oct. 27 at North Fork Country Club in Cutchogue, N.Y.

Such cooperation helps avoid potential legislation that had been threatened by local environment groups.

But getting a vast number of courses to volunteer for such a challenge did not happen overnight. The process evolved from visits made last November by Dr. James Baird, a USGA agronomist in the northeast region.

"Everybody seemed pretty excited about this at first," said Baird, who has worked on this project along with fellow USGA agronomist, Dave Oatis, the Green Section's director of the northeast region. "We sat down and wrote down a plan. All of a sudden they (courses) got cold feet and then we had to go back to the drawing board."

Added Jane Kenny, an EPA regional administrator: "The protection and restoration of coastal waters requires everyone to do his or her part, and the golf courses of eastern Long Island are certainly setting a laudable example."

Some courses told Baird and Oatis that without the USGA Green Section's stamp of approval, they might not have accepted this challenge.

It is the first time that a group of golf courses in one geographic area of the country have voluntarily agreed to better manage their fertilizer use. The goal: Cut nitrogen emission to less than half of the current volume..

"The good thing about this program is you have the heavy hitters involved and it's been an eye-opening experience for people like the EPA," said Baird. "It's a good program overall to the game and to people's concerns about what effect golf has on the environment. This is going to be a long-term program.

"They are now talking about doing this program in other parts of the country and that's good."

The technical assistance in terms of site visits - each participating course gets one over the next year - will come from the USGA and Cornell University, headed by Marty Petrovic, a professor in the school's horticulture department. Basically, the environmental agencies are allowing the USGA and Cornell to police the program. Each course receives a Nitrogen Management Plan, which varies from site to site depending on specific agronomic needs.

"The Peconic program is very well organized," said Baird. "And they are not just going after the golf (industry). They are asking everybody to reduce nitrogen use. Golf has really stepped forward. They haven't had the cooperation from other industries yet . but I'm very excited about golf participating and hope that will get other groups involved."