Long Lasting Tees Don’t Make Golf Eco-Friendly

I don’t know much about golf, but apparently wood tees don’t last very long – they splinter and leave litter all over the grass. A company called Eco Golf has created the Endurance Tee, which outlasts wood tees 10 to 1.

The company explains it:

Since the Endurance tee is so long lasting tee box litter is virtually eliminated.

The final benefit of the endurance tee is that it is manufactured with degradable materials. The tee will breakdown over time and when placed in active compost the process is greatly accelerated.

We’re glad to see golfers greening up their tees, but considering they’re using it in the middle of a giant carpet of pesticide filled grass cut by giant gas mowers sitting where natural lands used to be, it feels a bit small. It’s akin to a NASCAR team switching their cell phone service over to Working Assets- a nice gesture but a drop in the bucket in the big picture.

Golf could definitely get a lot greener. Many golfers and golf course owners are taking steps to help. While we’d prefer an untouched plot of land to a golf course any day, golf courses can provide certain environmental benefits in urban and suburban areas as a substitute for more concrete and asphalt – or to clean up disused sites like quarries and mines. We know that golf courses aren’t going to disappear, so we’d like to see more care being taken in making sure they aren’t all chemical-filled resource hoggers. You can get more info about greener golf at Golf and the Environment and Beyond Pesticides.

Link[EcoGolf] via [iGreenSpot]

Trump Wants to Build Golf Course in Scotland ‘for the Environment’

Donald Trump gets a lot of flak, and he likes it that way – it’s attention. I really believe that his bizarre hair is a carefully orchestrated part of a highly choreographed persona that he has created. How else can you explain that this billionaire, despite much teasing from the public, won’t let a stylist near his hair? Maybe he’s hiding a golden egg under there. Anyway, The Donald is creating controversy once again by stating that the golf course he wants to create on a stretch of untouched land in Scotland is ‘green’.

The Independent has it:

Donald Trump wants to create the world’s finest golf course on an unspoilt stretch of northern Scotland. Merely creating a “world class” course would not be good enough; it has to be better than the Old Course at St Andrews, he claimed yesterday.

The US billionaire was giving evidence at the opening day of a public inquiry into his plan to develop a site that includes sand dunes that are home to a rich variety of wildlife, on the Menie estate near Aberdeen. Mr Trump presented himself as an ecologically concerned entrepreneur, but when he described himself as “an environmentalist”, the reaction from the public gallery was so loud that the inquiry chairman, James McCulloch, demanded silence.

Mr Trump claimed his golf course was more likely to improve the local environment than damage it. He suggested the site was not very attractive in its present condition, though he agreed that it had the potential to be one of the finest sites in the world.

Of course, environmentalists have objected, and the development was turned down by the council in Aberdeenshire. Trump, in return, threatened that turning it down would be bad for Scotland because it would discourage future investors. Scotland’s first minister is still trying to bring the project to fruition, noting that it would create jobs.

Perhaps the birds that Trump’s golf course would displace can take up residence in his hair instead.

Link [The Independent]
Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman

Tripp Isenhour, Pro Golfer and Dick, Kills a Hawk with a Well Aimed Ball

Pro Golfer Tripp Isenhour is a dick.

Tripp “I’m a Dick” Isenhour killed a hawk with a well aimed golf shot because it was making noise as he taped a TV show. The accurate-but-still-a-dick golfer, whose real name John Henry Isenhour III is even more dickish than “Trip”, has been charged with cruelty to animals for for killing a migratory bird. He faces up to 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines. Toss him in the clink for a year and let him get pounded on by all the jailed bird lovers.

Link [Huffington Post]