Business of Golf Magazine: Discussion w/ Steve Shearer – The Australian GC
(Eagle Canyon – South Africa)
Please welcome a guest column from our new South African Media Partner.
In times when climate change and natural disasters are a point of major concern across most industries, what are golf courses doing to prepare and build better resistance against devastating weather events in the future?
The South African Publication Business of Golf magazine (BGM) has recently released an account of golf’s environmental responsibilities and how clubs can weatherproof their assets, discussed between clubs on three different continents.
You can read the full Weatherproofing & Environment discussion here.
John Cockayne, BGM’s founder and managing editor, is a Life and Founder Member of the PGA of South Africa, and has, what is possibly a unique 360 degrees view of the business of golf. His background and his highly respected career as a golf journalist, make him the perfect moderator for the discussion.
John is not an environmental evangelist (he does like many of us, believe that we are contributing to the current climate problems), and he is also not a tree hugger, although he is a tree lover – Cedars especially apparently!
However, he is on record, repeatedly, believing that as a sporting community, we are possibly among the very worst at telling our own good news stories.
He is fond of quoting an example “in which the ‘greens’ still believe that we water our courses with municipal tap water, and only develop golf courses on prime land”. The argument that why would they think any different, when we don’t say anything to counter these opinions is, in many cases, a valid one.
So – apart from discussing key regional issues, and sharing challenges and successes that we might have had, it is hoped that the discussion will also highlight the fact that the golf community is not uncaring in an environmental sense, but is very aware of its responsibilities and the need to do its ‘bit’, in terms of being environmentally aware.
The following is a link to the introduction to the discussion, which shows those involved at this stage, with the intention for this to become an ongoing discussion section, and include new contributors.
It is followed by the first discussion, which is with Dave Christie (GM at Eagle Canyon Golf & Lifestyle estate near Johannesburg), which is an estate John was involved with during its pre-opening phases.
The current discussion is with one of our own – The Australian Golf Club and its CEO Steve Shearer, and explores the challenges we are facing here with extreme weather occurrences, throughout the continent.
(Australian Golf Club)
