The GC St. Leon-Rot is known as host for major sporting events: Solheim Cup and European Tour tournaments have been held here. Numerous teams train on the course and an Olympic training center is also located here. You would not expect a sheep grazing project here. It is one of the unusual stories written by the exceptional German club.
Sheep have been kept on the site since 2021, grazing a total of 25 hectares of compensation area. There are currently 122 sheep and lambs on the site, which belong to the club. “After an initial trial in 2021 with an external shepherd, we have now fully integrated sheep grazing into our operations,” summarizes Karsten List, who is primarily responsible for the project Golf & Nature at GC St. Leon-Rot. Two shepherds, who are employed near the golf club in their main job, work part-time at the golf club and look after the animals on a permanent basis. They are on site all year round, and in winter, you can see the shelters for the animals on the golf course.
“This saves us the time-consuming mowing of the rough areas, and the sheep are very popular with the members,” said List, explaining the switch to sheep grazing when it was introduced in 2021.
The arguments in favour of sheep grazing are manifold: savings in workload when mowing, no accumulation of clippings, increase in member satisfaction, image gain in the region and increase in biodiversity are the most important. “In many places, grazing and the associated keeping of areas open is a prerequisite for certain species to settle and survive. They in turn promote the quality of the grassland,” states NABU, for example.
Red List species on the golf course
GC St. Leon-Rot is now home to four sheep breeds that are on the Red List of endangered species in Germany: The German Karakul, the Kärtner Brillenschaf and the Pied Mountain Sheep belong to category 1, while the Coburger sheep belong to category 3. The category 1 species are even threatened with extinction. In the case of the German Karakul, the Pied Mountain Sheep and the Spectacled Sheep, the Golf Club is the only herd book breeder in Baden-Württemberg. This is another reason why the club is a member of the Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt State Sheep Breeders’ Association, the AG Fuchsschaf and the AK Karakul.
For the GC St. Leon-Rot, this means that species protection is actively practiced on site while attention is paid to environmentally friendly grazing of the areas. To ensure that the sheep are not endangered by invasive species such as ragwort, the shepherds pull this out by hand on all grazing areas before the sheep are allowed onto the terrain.
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No economic gain
Anyone who thinks that keeping sheep means less work for the greenkeepers than mowing the areas themselves is therefore mistaken. You definitely have to keep an eye on the animals, especially as they also like to escape when they get the chance. However, golfers have long appreciated the animals, especially as you can also sponsor sheep at GC St. Leon-Rot. This is also actively practiced by the club’s management: each department at GC St. Leon-Rot sponsors a sheep for 50 euros per year. Together with the numerous sponsorships by private individuals, part of the costs for the animals is already covered.
