Climate change is real (if you don’t believe this, you need to get outside more often).
Human activity causing the release of carbon and other gases significantly contributes to climate change (if you don’t believe this, I would ask you: if you or a loved one were seriously ill, wouldn’t you go to a doctor/specialist to see what was happening and how you could cure it? The earth is ill and the overwhelming number of scientists who study the phenomenon agree that human activity materially contributes to this illness called climate change).
If this type of human activity is left unchecked, climate conditions will worsen (if you don’t believe this, see parenthetical in second paragraph above).
In its January 2025 Seventh Annual Climate Assessment, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute concluded:
Without considerable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,annual temperature in Oregon is projected to increase by at least 5F by 2074 and 7.6F by 2100, with the greatest seasonal increases in summer. Precipitation is projected to increase
during winter and decrease during summer, and the intensity of heavy winter precipitation events is projected to increase. Furthermore, the proportion of precipitation falling as rain rather than snow is expected to increase.
(The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute was created in 2007 by the Oregon State Legislature to, among other things, assess “the state of climate change science, including biological, physical and social science, as it relates to Oregon and the likely effects of climate change on the state.”)
So, what about golf courses? Is climate change affecting golf courses in Oregon? Are golf courses a contributor of carbon? What, if anything, are courses in Oregon doing in response?
I tried to address all these questions in one post, but it got a bit long. So this will be a two-part post, with the first post looking at if/how climate change is affecting golf courses and the second looking at if golf courses are contributing to climate change and what golf courses can do about it.
How is climate change affecting golf courses?
A December 7, 2023, article in Golf Business News, “Golf and Climate – what’s the Score” noted:
[C]limate change is creating new challenges for the look and playability of golf courses, including heat and drought stress; access to irrigation water; damage from storms, erosion and flooding; evolving pest and disease pressures.
An undated article in Links, “Game Changer: What Does Climate Change Mean For Golf” describes the multitude of coastal golf courses in Great Britian experiencing increased erosion from higher sea levels and stronger tides, and quoted Scottish Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham as saying “Since the 1970s, the rates of coastal erosion have doubled, and that pace will not slow down anytime soon. In fact, it will probably get worse—and faster.”
These are very general statements, but what is happening in Oregon? From personal observation, I know that the ocean off the Oregon Coast has gotten more aggressive in the past 15 years and is steadily taking the coastline away. Many coastal communities are resorting to rip-rap to keep the ocean from wiping out homes.
I reached out to a few courses (not a scientific survey; just antidotal reports) to see what they have been experiencing and how they are responding. Probably the most vulnerable course on the Oregon Coast is Neskowin Beach Golf Club, which historically has been subject to annual flooding. In 2024, for the first time in memory, the clubhouse flooded. Sean Tonnner, superintendent of the course over the past 6 years, believes that the tides seem to affect the course more with deeper and wider flooding and increased driftwood deposits, even though in 2020 the course was opened for a longer stretch than normal. The course is also sinking, but it is not known if this is something that is recent or recently accelerating.
About 230 miles down the coast, and slightly inland, is Salmon Run Golf Course in Brookings. Chris Clark has been the General Manager at Salmon Run for the past 3 years (fun fact – he worked at the course as a cart washer when it opened in 1999). He has detected generally hotter and dryer conditions with more consecutive hot days (and maybe a greater difference between weather at the coast and the course). He has also noticed an increase in the frequency of strong winds, a greater amount of snow in the winter (enough to allow snowboarding down the 16th hole), and more intense rainstorms. The intense rainstorms have increased erosion in the creek that wanders through the course, undermining the bank and some bridge supports.
In Portland, Kevin Niessen has been General Manager at the Glendoveer golf complex since 2013. Kevin believes that the course weather has become hotter and dryer over the years.
In Central Oregon, Zack Lambert has been the facilities manager at Meadow
Lakes Golf Course since 2012 (and has worked at the course since 2003). In recent years, he has seen the snow pattern shift so that it is coming later, more February and March than December and January. With warmer Spring temperatures following the snow, this late snow has caused a greater amount of water on the course in early spring, with a significant flooding of the course in 2017 (the first in many years) and lesser flooding occurring every few years thereafter.
I also reached out to the Oregon Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association and spoke with Executive Director Alexis Wenker. Like the report from Golf Business News, the OGCSA and its members have seen different insects, unusal grasses, and different turf diseases arriving on Oregon courses over the past several years. Superintendents are also having to respond to new rules and regulations enacted by the State addressing working in smoke and heat in response to the 2020 fires and 2021 heat dome.
What are courses in Oregon doing in response?
The effect of climate change on golf courses in Oregon so far is neither catestrophic nor dramatic. There are, however, changes that are occuring from frequency of flooding, to changes in the timing of weather, to different bugs arriving. Have these slight changes caused changes at Oregon golf courses?
At Neskowin, the course has retained a hydrologist and will be determining what steps it will need to take to preserve the course (for example, building the course up or making the course smaller and allowing the abandoned area to collect and store water).
Salmon Run is looking at ways to stabilize stream banks and bridge footings,
being more strategic in which trees to remove, and in increasing soil monitoring for moisture and nutrient content.
Glendoveer is not taking any action to mitigate against any specific climate threat.
Meadow Lakes is also not taking any specific action in responding to changes in weather patterns, other than possibly shoring up bridge supports.
The OGCSA has annual conferences, chat groups, and best practices manuals (and are always there to provide assistance) on how to address the problems that it and its members see as growing, including the slow invasion of new bugs and grasses. A good reference is OGCSA’s 2020 Second Edition Environmental Stewardship Guidelines: Best Management Practices, available on OGCSA’s website.
So now what?
Eventhough it is not dramatic yet, golf courses in Oregon are experiencing
changes related to changes in cliamte patterns. What those changes are and how courses are responding to those changes (if at all) varies from course to course. When there is a response, it is generally in the form of mitigation efforts to the changed weather (and related changes such as changes in insects and grasses) patterns, as opposed to efforts to reduce the cause of the changes (ie, carbon reduction in operations).
This leads to my second group of questions: do golf courses contribute carbon to the atmosphere and, if so, can they do anything to reduce carbon output. These questions will be answered in the next post, which should be up in early July.
In the meantime, if you have been noticing changing weather patterns at your golf course over the past 10 years, I would appreciate you commenting below on what you have experienced as well as what, if any, measures your course has taken or will take in response to those changes.
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