'Game On' for Sentosa Golf Club to go green

Singapore

SENTOSA Golf Club (SGC) - voted the World's Best Golf Club at last year's World Golf Awards - is sparing no effort to adopt more sustainable practices for the long haul.

The club wants to help the local golf community be more aware of the global threat of climate change.

SGC is taking the lead in becoming one of the most recognised eco-friendly golf facilities, and soon it will produce a toolkit - named "Game On" - for other clubs to follow suit using best practices for environmental sustainability in golf club and golf course operations.

The model, which will be available to download for free in March from SGCs website, was developed by Andrew Johnston, the club's general manager and director of agronomy.

With over 61 million golfers and 39,000 golf courses worldwide, Game On will back the industry to work together to reduce golf's carbon footprint, with the aim of making it one of the leading industries to combat climate change.

In recent years, SGC has increased exposure for its sustainable initiatives through the #KeepItGreen campaign, which was launched at the 2018 SMBC Singapore Open and has now become a way of life at the club.

When the campaign was launched through a partnership with then-Asian Tour Merit winner Gavin Green, the Malaysian professional's surname was the perfect pun to spread the word of the "green" initiatives.

Inculcating green practices in the golf club

As Mr Johnston said: "It was meant to be a campaign with the long-term mission of inculcating green practices in the golf club. We map out all the different plants and insects to find ways to make it as eco-friendly as possible."

One initiative under #KeepItGreen was to remove plastic bottles from golf carts.

Said Mr Johnston: "You should see the amount of plastic bottles we collect every day, mountains of it just going to waste. In total, that is 150,000 bottles a year that we no longer put back into the environment."

From bottles in carts to plastic straws in the restaurants and even biodegradable bags in the locker rooms, the club has reinvested in energy efficient air-conditioning that has earned a Platinum Green Mark from the Building Construction Authority.

The club also installed water stations at several locations for players and the public to refill their bottles during last month's SMBC Singapore Open. Players, officials, volunteers and journalists were provided with reusable water bottles.

The club is also looking at harvesting solar energy in the day and then using it to charge the battery-powered golf carts at night.

Separately, SGC has introduced a bee-keeping practice as one of its environmental initiatives against a backdrop of a 70 per cent drop in the global bee population.

Said Mr Johnston: "Scientists say that when the bee goes, it signals the end of the world because then there is nothing to pollinate, to keep the cycle of life. With four colonies in existence currently, the club has ambitions to grow that to 40 within 12 months."

Four golfers helped to spread the "bee message" by donning beekeeping suits and playing the fourth hole of the Tanjong course, the location of Sentosa's bee sanctuary which is managed by local professional John Chong from Bee Amazed.

Said Mr Johnston: "Game On will target the relevant issues that both golf and the world face in the fight against climate change. We hope to create a legacy with golf's leading organisations and communities that will have a huge bearing on our future."