Golf at a Crossroads
Pesticides on Golf Courses - Hazards and Remedies
A pocket sized (8.25 x 4.25 in.), 36 page, full color brochure
Today, turf management practices on most U.S. golf courses could use a healthy dose of sunlight. Community planners, children’s advocates, environmentalists, and golfers need access to accurate, up-to-date material from the U.S. and abroad. Golf at a Crossroads provides this information.
The prevailing policy in our own country involves treating golf course turf with hazardous chemical pesticides to obtain picture perfect standards set by TV tournament broadcasting. Many of the chemicals used have been associated with health problems in humans, wildlife, and the environment.
Golf at a Crossroads addresses these and related topics in a head-on, sensitive and thoughtful manner. It presents the case against chemical pesticide use on golf courses and examines alternatives including the option of toxic-free turf.
A golfer handing out the Crossroads brochures noted that almost everyone immediately wanted to know who “had the guts” to publicly discuss these issues.
The people of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts opted for ecologically “greener” golf when they demanded that the only conditions acceptable for a proposed new course would be to have it maintained without use of chemicals - under organic conditions. The resulting Vineyard Golf Club, as well as the Wawona Golf Course in California - both highly successful organic golf courses - are profiled in Crossroads.
While playing on such organic courses, men don’t have to worry about the association of prostate cancer with pesticides, and women of child-bearing age don’t need to wonder if a chemical applied might contribute to developmental disorders of unborn children.
Although Golf at a Crossroads is written primarily for a non-technical audience, its sources are thoroughly documented in an appropriate scientific fashion - with footnotes, references, and a list of recommended resources. It was written with input from golfers, golf course superintendents, toxicologists, engineers, regulators, and ecologists.
