What added value does a golf club have for society? All projects at Bowring Park & Golf Course near Liverpool, which was named The Most Sustainable Golf Project in the UK in 2025, revolve around this question.
“We are a showroom,” says Helen Paton, summing up the mission. It is a huge best-practice project.” Its aim is to make golf in the urban environment economically sustainable and an important point of contact for non-golfers who are looking for attractive leisure activities in the vicinity of the golf course. The focus is on the oldest municipal golf course in England, whose history dates back to 1913.
Located in an area known as the second poorest in the United Kingdom, the golf course recently was in a poor condition, resulting in mid-six-figure annual losses for the local authority. “Nobody came just for the golf and those who did come rarely paid a green fee because there was no real management,” says Helen Paton, responsible for fundraising and partnerships, describing the situation before Oneday applied for the management of Bowring Park & Golf Course. As a company, Oneday specializes in projects designed to increase the economic and social output of public facilities, parks, monuments and the like. “But we have always written concepts, developed projects, calculated costs. We were looking for a practical project to be able to implement strategies.”
GROW: The Sustainability Campus
Now Bowring Park & Golf Course is the prime example. The GROW: The Sustainability Campus project has been in existence since 2024. Sustainability at all levels is the core element. On the one hand, this is quickly visible visually, as a plaque on each tee of the golf course refers to a United Nations sustainability goal. On the other hand, there are countless small building blocks that are not visible at first glance, which led to the course winning the “Most Sustainable Project of the Year” award at the British Golf Environment Awards in 2025.
The Huyton Village Green coffee shop is the core, “where people have finally found a place to meet and have an affordable coffee together,” says Paton, describing the role of the new building, which is explicitly not a clubhouse but rather a meeting place. Before it was built, the few golfers unpacked their thermos flasks after a round and discussed their daily lives in the parking lot.
Workshops are held indoors, where people learn how to plant their own kitchen herbs and vegetables or how to live more sustainably and healthily. The Repair Cafe is the latest project to utilize the knowledge of numerous senior citizens from Liverpool, who now donate their time to the community. “We explain how to repair bicycles or even put handles on golf clubs ourselves,” Paton passionately sums up. Anyone who talks to her will recognize that she is not short of ideas.
Net Zero project with university participation
Neither is the ability to bring together different interest groups behind a project so that the added value is high for everyone. Liverpool John Moores University and England Golf are now also involved, supporting Bowring Park in its attempt to become England’s first net-zero golf course by 2025. The switch to biodiesel in greenkeeping is just as much a part of the plans as the use of solar energy or the establishment of a composting program for the local population.
Bowring Park & Golf Course is not a facility that is financially flush. “We can’t just buy electric mowers quickly,” Paton points out. Part of the funding for the entire course comes from the UK’s Heritage Fund, which also supports historic parks and buildings. However, the principle of success is based on a mixture of public funding, grants, volunteer hours and income.
Especially when it comes to economic sustainability, the geographical position of the golf course also plays a role. Bowring Park & Golf Course is located in Knowley, a rather industrial area around Liverpool. Logistics centres and large office complexes can be found here. “But there are also world-famous companies that are committed to sustainability in general due to their corporate philosophy.” Bowring Park & Golf Course can serve as an object lesson, as a venue for events and as a project partner.
Since the launch of the “GROW: The Sustainability Campus” initiative, the network of project participants has grown. Ideas have become real things to touch and use on the course. 10,000 people found their way to Bowring Park in 2024, many of whom were not golfers.They got to know golf through projects such as Get into Golf or Disc Golf, and some started playing golf themselves. Golf as a sport has gained acceptance. “We just wanted to become part of normality,” says Helen Paton, describing another goal. Bowring Park & Golf Course has achieved this. And it has positively impacted the normal lives of many people in the region.
