Golf '˜actively dealing' with erosion on links courses

The R&A says coastal erosion is being 'actively dealt with' in golf and is not duly concerned about it being a risk at Open Championship venues.

Royal Troon Golf Club hosted the 2016 Open. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

According to a report by the Climate Coalition, six of the UK’s seven wettest
years on record have occurred since 2000, prompting a warning that “only a small increase in sea-level rise would imperil all of the world’s links courses before the end of the century”.

Steve Isaac, the R&A’s director of sustainability, is quoted in the report, admitting that climate change is “certainly becoming a factor” and that “future threats are very, very real”.

However, golf’s governing body issued a subsequent statement in response to headlines claiming that Open Championship venues were at “risk of disappearing”.

A spokesman for The R&A said: “The effect of coastal erosion on links courses is something that golf has been actively 
dealing with for many years.

“Through the GEO Foundation, and our own experts, we support sustainable management of golf courses and it is important that they take whatever measures they can to protect their 
courses.

“Broader climate change, particularly the impact of sea levels, is a much wider issue, however, and ultimately it is not something that golf or any other individual sport can tackle by itself.

“We have to continue to raise awareness of the effects of climate change and encourage policymakers to consider the impact it is having on our coastline.”

Royal Troon, where Swede Henrik Stenson claimed the Claret Jug in 2016, has been taking measures for a long time to counter erosion on the Ayrshire coast.

“We’ve been proactive over the last 30 years,” club secretary Stephen Anthony told BBC World Service. “We’ve put lots of things in place to protect our course into the future.”