Its manager, Franck Martin, wants to “ensure golfers can enjoy this high-quality golf course to the full, while remaining in tune with the natural surroundings. Today’s products make it easy to create a rich green golf course with rolling greens. If colour is fading a shot of nitrogen and iron will sort out the problem. If the fairways lack firmness a bit of phosphorous will put it right. If microfauna are causing damage a spray of insecticide will eliminate them.”

But are we ready to pollute and destroy exceptional sites for purely commercial interests? “We now have the option of using environmentally friendly techniques that allow us to effectively maintain the 55 hectares of our golf course while at the same time tightly limiting the impact on fauna, flora and the subsoil, particularly ground water.”

Eco-management of course maintenance

“All the fertilisers we use are certified as organic. They provide the soil with the natural nutrition that plants need throughout the year. We have already seen that we get better results when the spring thaw comes and reveals healthy greens, with no signs of disease (no fusarium, anthracnose, brown patch, helminthosporium or anything else). This is the logical consequence of taking a balanced approach to the soil’s capacity to store nutritional elements and the plant’s capacity to take them up during clearly defined periods.” These fertilisers also allow a reduction in the use of phytosanitary products, usually over-deployed on golf courses. “Since 2008, we have been spraying the course just once a year, compared to an average on a traditionally managed golf course of around fifteen times. The logical consequence of organic management is that you nourish your soil with natural enriching agents which will strengthen the texture and improve the clay-humus complex of the soil, thereby feeding the turf with all the nutritional and trace elements it needs, which boosts the plant’s own immune defences.”

Water management at the heart of the system

The second plank of this environmentally-friendly approach is water management. Golf courses are widely criticised for their excessive water consumption.

“On the Mont d’Arbois golf course we are lucky to be more than 1,200 metres up in the mountains. Whatever you do, maintaining a golf course will inevitably require a lesser or greater amount of water, depending on soil quality and sunshine. To repair the impact of our activities on ground water, we have instigated a project to create two lakes on the Mont d’Arbois golf course at an altitude of 1,000m2. These will not only give us a wholly independent water supply sufficient to meet the course’s watering needs but also enhance the aesthetic charm of playing a round, since one of the lakes will curve round a third of the circumference of one green and the other will act as a 50 metre long water hazard on one of the par threes. Imagine a green that seems to float amid the overarching mountains!”

Not forgetting equipment

An environmentally friendly policy must also address the hardware deployed. The oils used in the mowers and other equipment are also eco-labelled so that any leaks will not pollute the soil.

One last project is due to begin soon, a building for the use of course staff. “Our aim is to achieve the best possible thermal insulation. In the mountains, summer temperatures can reach 30°c and just as easily drop to 20°c or lower in winter. We will also be using rainwater to supply the building. As for the power supply, we are currently looking into the possibility of using solar energy.”