Magazine - Planning golf courses in Australia

By Mike Orloff in Golf on 30th Apr 2010 13:00

There are many challenges facing the construction of new golf courses in Australia including the following perceptions which the industry needs to address -

1. Australia already has too many courses and there is no demand for new courses.
2. golf courses are not be economically viable.
3. golf courses are damaging to the environment.
4. the game of golf is elitist
5. the game takes too much time to play.

How to overcome these perceptions was recently discussed at an international level at The World Golf Forum in St Andrews Scotland where 150 Golf Architects and Industry Leaders from Australia, Japan, The USA, UK and Europe gathered to share their experiences and knowledge. The outcome of The Forum was a consensus that we need to work closely together to present the positive community and environmental benefits of golf.

These common perceptions of golf are not true and can be easily refuted by science which is what has underpinned the creation of GEO – Golf Environment Organization which is a not for profit organization that was established to be a central voice in this debate. Backed by golf’s ruling bodies The R & A ( The Royal and Ancient Golf club of St Andrews )and the USGA ( United States Golf Association ), The World Wildlife Fund, the world’s Golf Course Architect’s and other industry groups, GEO will become a central figure in scientifically proofing  the benefits of golf and promoting world’s best practice for the design, construction and maintenance of golf courses.

In Australia, planning new golf courses is particularly difficult in large part due to an overly beaurocratic planning environment. Planning in Australia is a state responsibility and there is very little common ground between the various state systems. The planning environment is expensive, time consuming and uncertain which discourages developers from entertaining golf course development.  Perhaps this is part of the planner’s grand plan. The planning process has also been corrupted by the perceptions that the Golf Industry is not responsible, despite the many fine examples of site restoration, habitat creation, re-use of effluent water and the fact that golf is one of the highest participation sports in Australia with obvious heath benefits.    It is also frustrating that in Australia it is almost impossible to develop near the coast as our enormous coastline is wrapped by either National Park and or Coastal reserve with very little private land abutting the coast. This is particularly ironical as the game of golf began ‘on the coast’ over 500 years ago and has been a wonderful custodian of sensitive coastal ecosystems for centuries.

Australia is a sporting nation and we are blessed with an abundance of beaches, sporting grounds and golf courses but not necessarily in the areas we now live. Australia is now a urbanized nation with nearly 90 % of  the population living In rapidly expanding  cities. Most of the population  growth is being accommodated on the urban fringe of our major cities and these people are being deprived of the opportunity of easy access to golf. For example, Melboune is expanding rapidly in a south easterly direction with the Packenham  corridor planned to house an additional 150,000  people  by 2030 yet there is no provision in the planning scheme for any golf courses. In the meantime the shrinking rural  populations are more than adequately provided for with golf and other sporting facilities but do not have sustainable levels of participation.  Currently Australia has on average a golf course for every 14,000 residents so The Packenham  Corridor could legitimately support 10 courses, especially on the basis of  the likely demographic of it’s residents.  Given that Golf Club’s perform an important community role this is most disappointing.

This story and others are available in the April issue of Golf Industry Central Magazine.

Read more articles in Golf, by Mike Orloff or from April 2010.