How many of you have heard of EIGCA’s Raising the Standard of Sustainable Golf Course Development program (RSSGCD)?
The golf architect who completes this program will gain the honor of the title Sustainable Design Leader.
The latest person who completed this program is Tom Mackenzie MEIGCA, of Mackenzie & Ebert (former EIGCA president; see picture below). I will talk about this later.
Actually, it is not a totally new program of EIGCA. It was launched in 2013 during the presidency of Rainer Preissmann.
In those days, Tom Mackenzie was the Chairman of the EIGCA Environmental Committee.
It has been developed in partnership with the Golf Environment Organization (GEO) and supported and evaluated by members of the GEO Sustainability Associate (GEOSA) network.
The Raising the Standard of Sustainable Golf Course Development program is supported by
- R&A‘s Working For Golf program,
- Rain Bird,
- Everris,
- Toro,
- Ransomes Jacobsen and Profile Products.
The RSSGCD program is the first and only program of its kind in the golf industry.
Tom Mackenzie – a Sustainable Design Leader
Tom Mackenzie is one of the principals of Mackenzie & Ebert. His RSSGCD case study was on Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire and involved the creation of a full-length eighteen-hole layout to replace a small nine-hole course as the catalyst for the restoration of a nationally important parkland which was in terminal decline.
The new holes were designed around avenues and copses which had long since disappeared, but which have now been replanted. A condition of planning was that 98% of the park had to be restored.
Today only 2 golf architects hold the EIGCA Sustainable Design Leader title in addition to Tom Mackenzie:
- Christoph Städler – his case study – Golf Resort Öschberghof (founded by Karl Albrecht, the co-Founder of ALDI-Group Germany), Donaueschingen, Germany
- Achim Reinmuth – his case study – The University Golfclub Paderborn ‘Haxterhohe Links‘ is an 18 hole course, located in the eastern part of North-Rhine Westphalia.
In Stage 3 of this program, we can find 4 golf architects:
- Robin Hiseman,
- Rubén Palacios Setvalls,
- Edwin Roald,
- Matt Schiffer.
They have already completed all 33 webinars in the Raising the Standard of Sustainable Golf Course Development (RSSGCD) programme.
In Stage 2 of this program, there are 37 golf architects.