19 awards have been achieved: The Golf Club Bensheim has won the19th award for their commitment to the golf course habitat project. “The motivation with which Hessian golf courses approach the promotion of biodiversity is really extremely pleasing,” summed up Christofer Hattemer, President of the Hessian Golf Association, when he presented the award to Dr. Ralf Landwehrmann, President of GC Bensheim, together with Marc Biber, Head of the Environmental and Course Maintenance Department at the German Golf Association.
The GC Bensheim, whose 75-hectare course forms a green lung between the freeway and the industrial estate, while at the same time attracting many golfers due to its proximity to the city centre, considers it increasingly important to address the topic of golf and nature. Irrespective of the image issue, says Landwehrmann, the importance of resource conservation and the promotion of biodiversity is increasing.
The golf club itself scores highly in terms of biodiversity, particularly with its lush hedgerow structures, which provide an important habitat between the fairways and along the outer boundaries. Roe deer, hares and numerous bird species use the copses as hiding places or breeding grounds. The fact that the food supply on the site is generally plentiful can also be seen from the fact that a stork’s nest on the site is occupied almost every year and is also used for breeding. Various water areas are well-connected on the site and attract dragonflies and other insects.
GC Bensheim wants to further increase the habitats for insects with more flowering areas. Head greenkeeper Holger Naumann has therefore created more flowering areas in areas away from the course in consultation with the environmental consultancy of the Hessian Golf Association. In general, the mowed material is removed from the rough areas and the grasses are mowed no more than once a year to give small herbs, grasses and flowering plants more opportunities to develop.
Amphibians, which like to move back and forth between water and land, now find a newly created pile of stones, which has been enriched with dead wood and is located in a quiet area of the site in sufficient sunlight. In order to raise awareness of biodiversity within the membership, a large insect house was also built as part of the golf course habitat project. “It’s always surprising how much creativity there is in this area,” said Marc Biber enthusiastically. “The insect houses look different on every golf course, and this one is already partially colonized.”
A cooperation with a local beekeeper, who looks after a total of five bee colonies on the golf course, also ensures that GC Bensheim now sells the club’s own honey in the secretary’s office, thus highlighting the importance of bees for the environment.
For Headgreenkeeper Naumann, however, the commitment to sustainability does not end there. “I no longer use any herbicides at all,” he says, expressing his satisfaction with the reduction in the use of pesticides. And he is also cautious when it comes to water. Although the club has a fairway irrigation system, Naumann takes the fairways out of the irrigation system during periods of drought.
“Our water permit is not excessively high, it is important to us that we can manage with the quantities,” Landwehrmann also sums up. Weather-adapted golf course maintenance is the motto for Naumann – depending on the temperature and precipitation, the appearance of the course is also slightly different. The decisive factor for the greenkeeper is the playing quality, not the color, of the grass. And as far as the quality of the greens is concerned, he agrees with Landwehrmann that Bensheim is known in the region for its first-class quality.
