Stories, ideas and solutions to create a more fun, inclusive and regenerative world in and around golf
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What's Under the Green: The Soil Science Behind Regenerative Golf
Discover from AgSource how soil health is shaping the future of regenerative golf. From soil testing and turfgrass biology to water conservation, nutrient efficiency, and better playability, learn how golf courses can use data-driven soil management to reduce inputs, build resilience, and create healthier playing surfaces from the ground up.
Gateway Golf: Designing Short Game Golf Courses
Award-winning golf architect Paul Jansen points to a statistic that should reshape the future of golf course design: roughly 75% of golf shots are played within 125 yards of the hole. If most of the game happens inside a wedge’s reach, why do so many golf facilities continue to prioritize long holes, large footprints, and resource-intensive maintenance models? Short-format golf (including par-3 courses, pitch-and-putt courses, putting courses, short-game areas, and night-lit golf experiences) offers a more accessible, sustainable, and profitable model for the future of the golf industry.
After decades of designing around the 25% of the game played beyond wedge range, the next generation of successful golf facilities will be built around the 75%: the scoring shots, feel shots, and beginner-friendly experiences that grow participation, improve revenue per acre, reduce environmental impact, and welcome more people into golf.
Pondering Pond Quality & Holistic Turf Health
In this Driving the Green interview, NanoOxygen Systems founder Ron Pote explains how water quality and dissolved oxygen influence sustainable golf course management. Drawing from projects like East Lake Golf Club, the conversation explores how improving irrigation water can enhance turf health, soil biology, and golf course sustainability while reducing chemical inputs and water use. By mimicking the oxygen-rich qualities of rainwater, new technologies may help superintendents manage irrigation ponds, reclaimed water, and turf systems more holistically (supporting both environmental performance and golf course profitability).
Engineering, Intuition, and the Future of Turf
What does playing great golf share in common with stewardship of healthy and sustainable turf? Carl (Cornell Turfgrass Team) and Andre (Driving the Green) discuss the very practical balance between systematic measurement and tactical feel, or between theory and follow-through when it comes to turf management.
Pro Sport as Catalyst for Change: Previewing the World Cup (2026) & Olympic Games (2028)
In celebration of this year’s Green Sports Day, we’re looking towards the global sporting events coming to the U.S. in the next couple of years and how they’re influencing the sustainability of sports venues and operations here. Next summer, eleven U.S. cities across the country will host games for the FIFA World Cup. In 2028, Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympic Games (LA28).
What does Happy Gilmore 2 say about modern golf culture?
Happy Gilmore 2 highlights the ethics & essence of golf (integrity) vs the forces trying to separate and commercialize it for maximizing personal, short-term gain (i.e. “Maxi Golf”). The sequel is a respectable comedy in a modern world that’s devoid of fun comedy movies. Happy Gilmore 2 brings in hot-button subjects and portrays the wrestling of golf’s core ethics within its economic model for success (something like financial sustainability vs socio-cultural and interpersonal sustainability).
A Psychoanalysis of Happy Gilmore
Nobody:
Literally not a soul:
Andre: Here’s my 4000+ word in-depth take on the psychology of Happy Gilmore, a classic 90s comedy with hidden depth and commentary on the nature of golf.
Sustainability Spotlight: California Community Golf Summit
The California Community Golf Summit brought over 130 municipal golf stakeholders together to discuss a range of issues including rising operational costs, diminishing natural resources, and conflicts over land use, just to name a few. Director of Sustainability at National Links Trust (NLT) and Co-Founder of Driving the Green, Andrew Szunyog, discusses his participation in key panels:
Existential Threats to the Game
Are You a Welcoming Golf Course?
Maximizing Efficiency in Golf Course Agronomy
Community Programming Success Stories
Enhancing Community Golf Through Design
Emerging Markets
What is “The Environment”? How can golf “save” it?
To save “the environment” is to live in harmony with the whole of life. This is not about promoting domination, isolation, or even passivism -- but alignment -- and golf is the ultimate game of alignment. It starts and ends with being fully present.
Nature Works: Activating Regenerative Leadership Consciousness (Book Review)
The lessons in Hutchins’ book “Nature Works” are absolutely profound, IF one takes the time to: “Practice, Practice, Practice; Integrate, Integrate, Integrate”
One such Way is through playing golf – hearing its deeper calls for self-development, honoring its emergent ethics, and dying to the present moment in order to affirm life as a Whole (Being-in-Flow).