The game of golf and more importantly the people who administer the game from the proud Par 3 operator to the rank and file of the PGA of America can be justifiably criticized for not doing enough to support the ecological benefits of advancing the causes of sustainability in the game of golf.  There are numerous methods and means for the game to adopt “going Green” initiatives, but first one has to recognize the benefits of adopting a truly ‘Green’ golf course and the need for protecting the surrounding environment. 

 Where does it start?

 The true drivers of golf course sustainability initiatives must come from concerned Golf Chairman, Greens Committee Chairpersons, PGA Golf Professionals, Golf Course Superintendents and most importantly golfers themselves.

 Much like the advance of Soft Spikes over twenty years ago whereby golf courses recognized that if golfers did not use steel spikes while playing the game, Greens did not bear the harsh burden of injury to recovery from a week of heavy course traffic and that there were significant reductions in operating costs in maintenance over the life of a green. 

 Correspondingly, there are significant financial benefits but more importantly environmental advantages to Going Green.

 However, at the advent of soft spikes, golfers had to be brought kicking and screaming into this product adoption and it was not until local golf rules of enforcement and the free installation of soft spikes did the full economic transformation take place.  Golfers had to be first enlightened and then literally forced to adapt to this change in the game.

 Similarly, my contention is that we all can and that we all should be very vocal in our need to identify recognized critical areas in which the participants of the game can contribute to Green initiatives on a very local level.

 The leadership at golf clubs and courses across America need to identify areas in which they can have their members/players actively contribute to Going Green.  Here are just a quick few examples - reducing pollution and noise by removing gas operated golf cars and utility vehicles from golf courses, eliminating contaminating chemical infestation of streams and ponds, building clubhouses with sustainability features, and introducing new products into the game that support environmental activism and re-cycling.

 Dixon Golf is on the cusp of leading the golf ball industry into this new age of player environmental concern.  Our performance golf balls, packaging and even our promotional literature have ecological and environmental advantages to the game yet, we as a company, are not a group of your stereotypical tree hugging Green activists. We are however, very much concerned with the advantages of using re-cycling in golf ball product manufacturing and the contributions that our performance products can advance to localized golf course sustainability initiatives that drives the mission of our employees and our business.

 In this time of a more global Going Green consciousness and the need to particularly address the leveled criticism that the game of golf takes in contributing to polluting the environment, it should be a mandate of the leadership of the PGA and among PGA golf professionals at the local golf course level to interdict options for players of the game to participate in golf course Going Green initiatives.  One easy way is to offer products like the Dixon ED and the Dixon Earth golf balls. 

 Dixon makes it easy and profitable for the golf professional to sell Dixon environmentally friendly golf balls while at the same time offering the player a distinct distance advantage over other golf balls as Long Drive Champion Sean Fister found out by accident.  This was also determined by the progressive leadership of the management of Kapalua who required their golf professional and his staff to develop five immediate ways their golf courses could adopt Green initiatives and their first directive was to purchase environmentally friendly logo golf balls from Dixon.

 Much can be said about how the economy is affecting the game and “going Green” in an economic downturn.  Is being environmentally concerned while playing the game of golf just relegated for the game’s wealthy participants or can we all be activists in this movement?

 We think that being active in supporting Going Green initiatives at golf courses across America transcends all economic profiles and borrowing from an old advertising cliché; “It Doesn’t Cost Anymore to Go Green.”  It actually costs less to play distance defining Dixon golf balls.

 Just ask your PGA Golf Professional to start to stock Dixon golf balls and allow you to contribute to the positive aspects of taking your golf course truly Green and helping the ecology.

Joe White

Dixon Golf