Photo: Leo Reynolds/Flickr

These days, it’s pretty likely that your golf course has one or more “environmentally sensitive areas” that are intended to preserve the natural landscape.  Most often, they’re wetlands, but they can just as easily be fragile desert ecosystems.  Normally, these areas are designated by government regulatory agencies and they seem to be prevalent on newer courses, where environmental concerns are considered during construction.

At my course, these areas are usually marked with hazard stakes with green tips.  Most of them are lateral hazards, so the sensitive areas are lined with red stakes with green tips.  There are some signs as well.  You might have seen similar setups at courses you have played.

I have a major beef with these environmentally sensitive areas.

Before you think I don’t care about the environment, think again.  Golf courses absolutely have an impact on the local ecosystem. In the middle of summer, when it’s hot and dry, a golf course needs a lot of water to stay healthy.  Have you ever noticed ponds and lakes virtually empty from all the irrigation?  Well, in a stream-fed system, that means someone downstream isn’t getting water for some other purpose such as agricultural irrigation.  That’s why there are often restrictions placed on courses using surface water.

I’ve also seen the amount of chemical treatment required to keep a typical golf course up and running.  That includes stuff with a skull and crossbones on the container.  In most cases, players are not in danger, but there’s the issue of run-off, where these chemicals wash into the surface water supplies and end up being transported away.

I’m impressed at the effort being placed on lowering chemical and water usage these days.  Courses are doing a good job at balancing the needs of customers with the impact on the local ecosystem.  I’m all for that.  There’s even a course on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. that’s 100% organic.  Now that’s a feat and shows some real ingenuity.

So what’s my problem with “environmentally sensitive areas”?

Let’s see what the Rules of Golf have to say on the matter.  According to Appendix I, Part A:

Assisting preservation of the course by defining areas, including turf nurseries, young plantations and other parts of the course under cultivation, as ground under repair from which play is prohibited.

When the Committee is required to prohibit play from environmentally-sensitive areas that are on or adjoin the course, it should make a Local Rule clarifying the relief procedure.

On my course, the sensitive areas are those that were mandated with the state of New Jersey. By local rule, they play as hazards (lateral hazards, in most, if not all cases). But, that’s not all. In addition to that, players are prevented from even setting foot in those areas.

That’s my my complaint.  They play as hazards, but I can’t set foot in there?

I’ll give an example.  The second hole at my course is a short, but narrow par four.  There’s trouble right and running up the left side is woods with a mostly dry, environmentally sensitive, lateral hazard ditch right next to it.  The fairway ends on the left side with about 2 yards of rough then a cart path and then about another yard of rough dropping into the protected area.  We’re not talking about an out of the way location here.

The problem is, just about all year, there’s nothing more than moist turf and sand in that ditch and usually, it’s not even moist.  A ball hit in there is absolutely playable probably 95% of the time.  In any normal hazard, I have the option of playing the ball as prescribed by Rule 13-4.

The most basic fundamental concept of golf is to play the ball as it lies. The rules cover situations where this isn’t possible and outline procedures for relief or penalty.  In this case, the ability to play the ball as it lies is removed and the player is penalized.  The player is punished because the course happens to contain areas with external regulatory bodies have deemed sensitive.

I can sort of understand it in spots where the sensitive area is an actual pond or marsh or somewhere that it’s not really feasible to play a shot anyway, and damaging the ecosystem isn’t desirable.  But I promise you, if you could see the ditch at my course that I’m referring to, you’d have to laugh.  It really is just a grassy area with moist soil and sand at the bottom.

As if that’s not enough, I have to kiss a $3.50 ball goodbye that I can stand there and see.  That is, if I want to act strictly within the rules, and probably the law.  I’ll say this:  I never play out of those areas, but I’m not leaving a ball behind that was living in a carton when I arrived at the tee.

Am I blowing hot air here? Do those of you in other countries encounter the same kinds of situations?  How about those of you in the United States?  Is this common everywhere, or is it only uber-regulated states like New Jersey?  Would treating it like ground under repair make the situation fair, or just make it unfair in the player’s favor?

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