The Old Collier Golf Club/ Good Case Study

I’ve spent six days in the Naples area and visited three golf courses. The one course I wanted to visit was the Old Collier Golf Club. This course was the first course to be certified by the Audubon International Signature program (gold certification). I based this fellowship on the Audubon International golf course certification programs. It seems like it’s a great program to get involved, at least the signature program. The Old Collier Golf Club was a great visit. They were really nice and very supporting in what I was doing. According to them I was on the right track in becoming a golf course architect. I spent two days there the first day Tim Hiers (golf course manager) showed me around. This course is a great study for my fellowship for many reasons and I can't possibly type this all out as it would be about a 20 page report. However, some of the significance of this course was the use of a turf grass called Seashore Paspalum from tee to green. It was the first course that used it from tee to green and what’s great about this grass is it can be watered with brackish water which is pretty much waste water or high salinity. Since this area has been in extreme drought conditions this course has not had any restrictions put on them. Its hard to cover it all on this course, but some of the great things about this course is how this site went from basically nothing and almost a housing development to a breeding ground for lots of wildlife. Tim Hiers and his crew has worked hard in creating habitats and connecting corridors for wildlife. One being the gopher tortoise population which is a protected species. The population on this site has almost doubled (140 count) since the course has been open in 2000. This course is managed in a very efficient way. Even the maintenance buildings would exceed LEED certification. The course was a beautiful Tom Fazio design. This was an excellent case study and has won many Florida sustainable awards. This is certainly a way a course can be designed and maintained in a efficient and sustainable manner.