World Golf Competition

FOC's "International Environmental Golf Course" prize was developed in order to raise awareness of the responsibilities that golf courses have in preserving and protecting wildlife and the positive role that they can play.

When managed improperly, golf courses can have a significant adverse impact upon the natural environment, particularly through the ill-considered use of herbicides and pesticides or extensive watering where this depletes local supplies.

FOC wishes to encourage management practices that consider fully the needs of the wildlife that lives on and around golf courses particularly where they are situated in or adjacent to fragile habitats

FOC has been generously supported by GolfPlanet Holidays / French Golf Holidays in making a special award to Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands.

The course management programme at Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club, situated just north of Inverness on the Moray Firth, has succeeded in conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of local wildlife. The ecology of the course includes a variety of important species such as breeding skylarks, linnet, yellowhammer, whitethroat, grey partridge, brown hare, red kite and peregrine falcons. Its grasslands are rich in wildflowers and butterflies.

Prize money generously donated by GolfPlanet Holidays / French Golf Holidays will fund further expansion of the ecological programme through the creation of a wildlife woodland corridor.

The FOC judges considered nominations from around the world in making their decision.

Examples of the Club's environmental management programme include:

• Conducting surveys on plants, birds and mapping the position and condition of gorse.
• Enhancing habitat by the creation of corridors and links. Increasing patch size and diversity.
• Increasing the total area and quality of rough grassland through contour mowing and grassland management regimes.
• Improving the quality and quantity of suitable habitat for the increasingly rare ground nesting birds such as the skylark and meadow pipit.
• Producing a specific management plan for gorse regeneration throughout the course.
• Using wind damaged, trampled and cut gorse to create woodpiles for fungi and invertebrates.
• Cutting and bailing areas of rough grassland to improve nesting for skylarks and reducing scrub encroachment.
• Adopting various methods to minimise fertiliser and pesticide use.

For further information on Best practices on Golf Course management visit
www.scottishgolf.com
www.committedtogreen.com