Going green helps the properties spend less money and environment, it makes everyone involved happy.
Club properties continue to discover that taking steps to protect their little corners of the world is not only good for the environment, it can also make good business sense. At Kona Country Club on the Big Island of Hawaii, an eco-friendly golf course renovation will not only make the Ocean Course greener, it will also save the club some green in the process.
The six-month renovation will modernize the course, which was originally designed in 1966 by William Bell. The improvements will also introduce 21st-century environmental techniques that will help cut maintenance costs and reduce the course’s use of the island’s limited supply of fresh water.
As part of the plan, some 30 acres of grass will be removed to expose the course’s volcanic roots, thus conserving water needed for maintenance. The club will also introduce a gravity-based irrigation system that will use water extracted from a nearby sewage treatment plant. The treated water will be pumped to a reservoir on the mountain and used to irrigate both the Ocean Course as well as Kona CC’s Mountain Course. Because a pumping system isn’t needed, the system helps to reduce some electricity costs associated with course maintenance.
Another major improvement—and water savings—will come through converting all of the turf from bermuda grass to salt-tolerant paspalum grass. New tees will also be added, to stretch the course from 6,500 yards to a more challenging 7,000 yards from the championship tees.
Construction is set to begin in April 2010, with completion scheduled for October, and an official reopening in December 2010 or January 2011.
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