cover story
A
Smaller
Footprint
Courses in the Met Area continue to make strides
to improve their environmental impact
BY MERRELL NODEN
For a time it seemed as if golfers and environmentalists
were natural enemies, destined to clash over precious 150-
acre parcels of green earth. That period of bitter contention, which began in the mid-1980s, reached a peak in
1991 with the release of “Toxic Fairways,” a report by
then-New York attorney general Robert Abrams, which
accused Long Island golf courses of all manner of crimes
against man and nature. While the Abrams report was
harshly criticized for its inaccuracies, it caught the media’s attention and gave
credence to the public’s perception that golf courses are harmful to the environment. This was not something the golf community wanted to hear or deal with.
In the years since, much of that same golf they got some of it right, he was also able to
community—led in many cases by golf course articulate the many positive effects that golf
superintendents—have responded in a positive has on the environment. He knew that the
way to the call to action, and to the rather new leadership of clubs and courses had work to
concept of reducing one’s carbon footprint. do in order to address the criticism.
One of the early adopters was Arthur “Rather than fight them I thought we ought
Weber, a founding member of Old Westbury to cooperate with these folks,” says Weber, who
Golf & Country Club on Long Island. As a at 88 is still playing golf and still focusing his
chemical and nuclear engineer who had once considerable intellect on solving environmen-worked on the Manhattan Project, Weber tal problems. “I thought we ought to be as
was in a good position to evaluate the envi- environmentally conscientious as we could
ronmentalists’ concerns. While he thought possibly be.”
