20 AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 1 2009
ILLUSTRATIONBYRYANSNOOK
E N V I R O N M E N T
I
all-organic turf-care regimen and limited
water use to 150,000 gallons a day. Not
exactly ideal conditions to create a verdant
AugustaGolf Course look, considering that
the typical 18-hole private course in the
UnitedStatesuses considerablymorewater
duringa course’s growing season.
“I was a little nervous, to be honest with
you,” Carlson says. “No one had ever done
this in the countrywithout any pesticides.”
Yet, Carlson, a winner of the President’s
Award for Environmental Stewardship
from the Golf Course Superintendents
Association of America, was the ideal can-
didate for the job. The bulk of his 40-year
careerwasspentonCapeCodattheBrewster
Golf Course (now the Ocean Edge), where
he had to deal with strict environmental
regulations. Then, in 1998, he was chosen
tohelpbuild theWidow’sWalk course atop
a sand-and-gravel pit in the coastal townof
Scituate, Massachusetts. The former land-
fill, now repletewith recycledmaterials like
used carpeting for the bunkers, has reaped
accolades for its sustainabledesign.
Ayear later, Carlsonwason theVineyard
working with a British architect to create
the links-styleVineyardGolfCourse.Preva-
lent in the U.K., links golf takes advantage
of thenatural contoursof the terrain topro-
vide a bump-and-run style of play, where
the fairways arewide andfirm and the ball
In a scene reminiscent of the film
Cad-
dyshack
,WalterWalodykadrives around
the Vineyard Golf Club at night in his
pickup truck, tracking the “enemy var-
mint.” This time, the enemy’s not gophers
wreaking havoc on the greens but skunks
and crows. Walodyka gets out of his truck
wearing night-vision goggles and inspects
the traps he laid the previous night,
baited with barbecue sauce on white
bread and cheese crackers. Fate for the
unfortunate critter stuck inhis cages
is the inevitable, forWalodyka has
the license tokill.
“Walter actuallymet the char-
acter Carl Spackler in person,
when Bill Murray played here,”
saysVineyard superintendent Jeff
Carlson.
The skunks and crows come to Vine-
yard Golf Club, seven miles off the coast
ofMassachusetts on the island ofMartha’s
Vineyard, not to try their hands at the par-
72 coursebut todineongrubs. The insects,
alongwith errantweeds and roughpatches
on the greens, are a few of the maladies
Carlson faces inmaintaining one of Ameri-
ca’s onlyorganicallymanagedgolf courses.
Water quality and amount of use are im-
portant issues onMartha’s Vineyard, espe-
cially since the island’s sole source of water
is supplied by one underground aquifer.
When the Vineyard Golf Club applied for
permits to build a 70-acre course in 1999,
the governing body on the island, theMar-
tha’s Vineyard Commission, insisted on an
c
Green
Greens
Martha’sVineyardcourse
takesa swingatgolf,
withoutpesticidesoran
abundanceofwater.
ByStephenJermanok
