How Golf Can Save The World

Golf is a great sport, amazing to play and those who play professionally are worth watching for their skills. It’s sportsmanship at it’s finest, with it’s rules refined over centuries of play. Being a fan of the sport, I’ve spent rapturous hours both watching, and playing the game. Seeing the incredible courses, looking at the great expanses of verdure upon which the golfers compete, I so appreciate the grand lushness of their meticulous design and beauty. Watching The Ryder Cup this past weekend only reinforced how accomplished these professionals are in their field.

I want golf to continue, and I’m sure the PGA does too.

However over this and previous years a few alarming trends seemed to surface in terms of the weather, namely fires, floods and heat domes. Golf courses near Fresno, had to close during the fires in Fresno, much of Hobe Sound, the home of Jupiter Island Golf Club is shut down or under flood watch. There are water shortages due an increasingly heated planet and coastal flooding which can hamper the course.

Bethpage Black was unbelievably beautiful, and this weekend’s golf a joy to watch. I’m glad the next one in Ireland, but I am worried. The choices of where to hold Majors becomes increasingly dependent on where maelstrom will not strike. If this concerning, the PGA and IGA might not be completely powerless.

So if I may ask, is there the possibility your organizations can recognize the need to address climate change? And if you see the merits in not only acknowledging the existence of a threat to Professional Golf, but committing to act, there seems to be a few things which can be done.

An acknowledgement of the problem firstly would be incredibly helpful. Maybe even something like this could be considered, for example: NetJets is huge, but private planes spew out 2 tons of CO2 per hour, and that’s bad for the environment. Is there a way there could be a team plane which picks the golfers up?

There are many who travel to and from the same tournaments, it could work, more importantly it would be a real clarion call. Both the PGA and IGA have profound influence and the absolute admiration of so many prominent and important people. Something like this would send a clear signal in a world where more can be done to refocus efforts for sustainable energy using wind, water, sun and biofuels, as well as cutting harmful emissions.

Imagine that the mindset of professional golf comes to the conclusion that yes, we must act to stop climate change so that the game of golf may continue, and the fairways of our dreams stay intact.

Golf is not only a beautiful sport, it’s a highly profitable one too, both the great wealth the sport generates and its reach should be used for longer distance thinking so the 2045 Ryder Cup is not played in an underground bunker.

You have the power, Golf could save the world. We need top down leadership for this too happen.