Auchterarder award for green awareness

AUCHTERARDER Golf Club has been held up as a shining example of how to make a course sustainable after landing a leading environmental awareness award.

The Perthshire club is the first "traditional UK members' golf club" to earn the Golf Environment Organisation's certified award, which is mainly down to the efforts of head greenkeeper Archie Dunn and his staff.

"GEO certification is an important ongoing project for Auchterarder, helping to shape our environmental programme and provide a basis from which we will work to make our club more sustainable year on year," said Dunn, who has been at the club for 14 years and is on the board of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers' Association. "As the first traditional club in the UK to achieve GEO certified status, our management team and membership are really proud. The rest of the world is running with GEO and the UK needs to do the same as they can reap the benefits, too."

The seven courses under the St Andrews Links Trust umbrella as well as the likes of Loch Lomond, Gleneagles and Machrihanish Dunes are other Scottish courses to have earned the GEO certified award to date.

"As a former sustainability adviser in Scottish golf, I've had a close insight to the evolution of Auchterarder's environmental awareness. This club is a great example for Scottish golf," said Jonathan Smith, the GEO chief executive.