Artificial turf in golf – a sustainable alternative?
Is the use of artificial turf a sustainable solution in golf course construction? Until now, the use of artificial material on large surfaces was difficult to imagine. Their use is currently largely limited to training areas, indoor golf areas, putting areas or artificial turf tees. To date, golf course architects have not seen any large-scale use of artificial turf surfaces. “Outdoors, artificial turf in Central and Northern Europe only makes sense on individual training areas if you want to play all year round,” explains German golf course designer Thomas Himmel. At the same time, artificial turf is experiencing a boom, “because it satisfies a need in areas where it is difficult to create quality solutions with natural grass,” Haaye de Jong, Managing Partner of Southwest Greens Construction, told Golf Course Architecture magazine. Southwest Greens has, for example, built an artificial turf training area for the Eichenheim Golf Club in Kitzbühel, Austria.
Some investors in the golf sector even point to ecological arguments when they argue for the selection of artificial turf as the sole playing surface. After all, they argue, artificial turf requires no fertilisers, less maintenance and has longer usage times per year. Even water could be saved.
No studies on the topic
How sustainable is the use of artificial turf in golf really? A question to which there is currently no simple answer. This is also because science has not yet addressed this question. While various studies have investigated how artificial soccer pitches should be assessed in terms of recycling management, playability or impact on players’ health, there is no comprehensive assessment of the effects of artificial turf in golf. The two organizations, the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, have also not issued an assessment on the subject.
In fact, artificial turf surfaces have been experiencing a boom in sport since the first artificial turf was used in 1965 with the so-called Astrodome, a baseball and American football stadium in Texas. In 2020, the Synthetic Turf Market Report published by the Synthetic Turf Council estimated an artificial turf area of 24.6 million square meters in North America alone. According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global artificial turf market will be worth 19.58 billion dollars in 2031, compared to 4.75 billion in 2023. The installation of artificial turf in soccer stadiums, on field hockey pitches, in baseball, American football or even in golf is big business.
Artificial turf also needs water
But how should the sustainability of artificial turf in golf be assessed, and which questions are relevant? From an ecological point of view, irrigation, heat, fertilization, pesticide use, the influence of microplastics and soil sealing are the biggest issues.
It is wrong to assume that artificial turf surfaces do not need any irrigation. The study Water Requirements for Cooling Artificial Turf, published in 2020 in the Journal for Irrigation and Drainage Engineering and authored at New Mexico State University, points out that “in arid and semi-arid climates, the surface temperature of artificial turf surfaces can rise above 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer and require irrigation and drainage systems to cool them for use.” “Stand in the middle of a soccer stadium at 90 degrees Fahrenheit and you know why there will never be artificial turf fairways. Fake grass amplifies the heat,” explained American golf course designer Michael Hurdzan to the trade magazine Golf Digest in 2020.
A model test at New Mexico State University, which investigated irrigation, came to the conclusion that “over a period of 24 hours, the amount of water required (3.00 mm to 5.00 mm) was comparable to that of natural grass.” “If the investment in artificial turf is to be worthwhile, the game must be guaranteed and the artificial turf must then be cooled,” concludes Prof. Dr. Bernd Leinauer, Extension Turfgrass Specialist at New Mexico State University and one of the internationally recognized specialists for golf turf.
For him, the argument that no pesticides are used on artificial turf is also only partially convincing, as the use of pesticides on turf is restricted or completely banned internationally anyway.
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Microplastics remain a problem
Instead, Leinauer points to the fact that artificial turf is currently made of polypropylene or polyethylene fibers, i.e. plastic, and that the introduction of microplastics into the ground therefore plays a significant role. However, it is unclear how long these products can still be used for the production of artificial turf, as sports associations such as UEFA are now calling for the materials to be replaced.
No soil compaction
Artificial turf surfaces do not compact the ground. “The products are water-permeable and have a mineral gravel layer as a base,” explains Volker Sternberg, owner of Private Greens, which is one of the leading providers in the D-A-CH region. He also refers to the long service life of the surfaces, which is no less than 25 years, and to the fact that Private Greens does not use PU adhesive.
Sternberg sees a future for artificial turf above all in the area of greens, tees and training areas, because this is where the highest maintenance costs are incurred with normal grass. “On a rough estimate, the maintenance costs for artificial turf are around ten percent of natural grass,” he says. Not only is less time required for the greenkeeping staff, but the machinery is also reduced. At the same time, however, the initial investment in artificial turf surfaces is significantly higher than for normal greens or tees.
CO₂ footprint and disposal
If you add up the area of nine average greens and two average tees per fairway, this still results in an artificial turf area of around 8,000 square meters. All in all, a considerable area. Due to the fact that plastic production is based on fossil fuels, the CO₂ footprint of artificial turf is a negative aspect that does not apply to natural turf. Disposal must also be considered when removing the material, whereas all materials can be reused when converting a natural green.
Prof. Dr. Johannes Kollmann, who holds the Chair of Renaturation Ecology at the Technical University of Munich and has been studying the ecology of golf courses for years, also points out the “disadvantages of artificial turf in terms of the lack of cooling and carbon sequestration, reduced infiltration, reduced soil life and the release of microplastics.”
The purification qualities of normal soil also come into play: “Natural soil and earth also serve to filter water before it reaches underground aquifers (rock bodies, editor’s note) or water bodies,” points out David Bily, who as a landscape architect and golf course designer also has experience with artificial turf from the soccer sector.
France points to plastic pollution
The French Golf Federation has already gone one step further in view of the discussion about the consequences of installing artificial turf and recommends not to use it. ffgolf refers to the negative effects of heat generation and the pollution of water by microplastics with reference to the study The dark side of artificial greening: Plastic turfs as widespread pollutants of aquatic environments from 2023. In addition, the European Commission has already issued a ban on the use of rubber granules on artificial turf surfaces, which will apply from October 15, 2031. The French Golf Federation points out that the installation of artificial turf with this material is not recommended anyway.
Is environmental awareness suffering?
Given all the arguments put forward by experts, it is extremely unlikely that artificial turf is the more sustainable solution compared to natural grass. Especially as there is also the question of how such areas affect the environmental awareness of athletes. This is a topic that the three Scandinavian scientists Erik Backman, Daniel Svensson and Itai Danielski have addressed in their study The Changing Landscape of Sport Facilities – Consequences for Practitioners and the Environment. They point out that “the landscapes in which we move can reduce or increase our awareness of the natural world”. This, in turn, can have a positive or negative influence on sustainable actions.
Applied to the sport of golf, this raises the currently still hypothetical question: What feeling for nature would a golfer develop if he were to play on a purely artificial golf course? A scenario that is not yet a reality because there are only very few golf courses with large artificial turf surfaces due to the limits of implementation imposed by the issues of cost and heat.
On the other hand, who would have thought 20 years ago that ski resorts largely equipped with artificial snow would ever become a reality? If the playability of artificial turf continues to adapt to the needs of golfers, and it becomes possible to play the sport all year round in regions where this is not possible, 9-hole courses made of artificial turf would be quite conceivable. After all, people ski in a huge indoor arena in Dubai.
The question of how sustainable the use of artificial turf in golf is will therefore remain. When it comes to today’s assessment of how sustainable the use of artificial turf is on larger golf course surfaces, the result is probably negative.
