Working in partnership with Golf Management Australia and the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association, The R&A’s Sustainable Golf National Roadshow brings together general managers, course superintendents, department managers, club executives and board members for an interactive programme focused on creating more sustainable, resilient and future-focused golf facilities.

From research to practical action

The roadshow follows the publication of The R&A’s Biodiversity Benefits of Golf in Australia and New Zealand report, which showcased work undertaken by 30 golf facilities across the two countries.

The initiative represents an important next step: moving from demonstrating what golf courses can contribute environmentally towards helping individual clubs understand what they can do themselves.

Dr Brett Morris, Agronomist (Asia-Pacific) with The R&A Sustainable Agronomy Service, is leading the roadshow’s morning sessions on sustainable agronomy and believes golf facilities have an increasingly important role as green spaces.

“As climate pressures intensify and bio-diversity loss accelerates, these landscapes are increasingly being recognised not simply as sporting venues, but as environmental assets capable of delivering measurable ecological, climatic and community benefits,” he said.

Golf courses as environmental assets

Across Australia, that contribution is already taking different forms. Clubs are restoring indigenous vegetation, protecting threatened species, developing alternative water supplies, reducing resource consumption and contributing to urban cooling.

Partnership is also becoming important, with clubs working alongside researchers, indigenous groups, environmental agencies and local communities.

For Morris, the important message is that progress does not necessarily depend upon substantial investment.

“Many of these achievements have not been driven by major capital investment alone,” he said. “They have emerged through long-term planning, practical innovation and a growing understanding that high-quality golf and environmental stewardship are mutually reinforcing objectives.”

Giving clubs a game plan

Royal Sydney Golf Club provides an example of the potential impact. Its redevelopment attracted significant protest over the removal of 595 trees, but subsequently resulted in around 500,000 native plants being established, a fourfold increase in floral diversity and support for the restoration of the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub ecological community.

The roadshow also builds on The R&A’s wider commitment to sustainability across golf. In the Global Sustainable Sport SPI Index, The R&A is ranked among the Top 100 most sustainable sports organisations globally, achieving a Grade C – Purpose Established SPI Rating.

The Sustainable Golf National Roadshow provides another example of how that commitment is moving from strategy into practical implementation. By combining evidence, expertise and hands-on planning, The R&A is helping clubs understand where they are today, identify where they can improve and, crucially, turn environmental ambition into measurable action across the sport.