Anyone who manages a golf course knows one thing: proper turf management is the key to the success of a top golf course.
Specifically, dedicated caretakers at the world’s top golf clubs deploy sophisticated hardware and a range of innovative techniques to keep the greens of golf courses in top condition. At Laguna Golf Lang Co, the work involved in maintaining the elevated state of the course layout – including a spectacular Nick Faldo-designed course where golfers stand amidst tropical jungle, sand dunes, ocean and rice paddies – is also done in full, but it is shared between humans, machines and even… animals.
The water buffalo acts as a biological lawn mower and helps maintain the rice fields on the course.
Adam Calver, Director of Golf at Laguna Golf Lang Co, said Vietnam is the first place in the world where animals play such an important role on a golf course. Mother Chi Chi and her calf Bao will have four hectares of rice paddies to "work". These fields surround the third and fourth holes and reappear on the 13th green, 14th tee and run along the 15th fairway.
In the early days of golf, when fairways were mostly laid out on public land, it was not uncommon for sheep and cattle to roam freely across the fairways and greens. Even today at some courses – notably wild links clubs in remote areas such as Scotland and Ireland – cattle still “play their part” across the course, mowing and thinning the grass. In Asia, while there was once less of a willingness to let animals get in on the act of protecting the green, there are now other moves. Even on the quietest days, water buffalo wade out through the rice paddies and do their duty.
The rice fields now have another spectacular visual element - a golf course!
“We looked at different solutions to improve the aesthetics of the rice paddies between harvests, and constantly mowing the fields to maintain large, smooth patches of land that meet our standards can be labor-intensive,” Calver added. Water buffalo thus act as bio-mowers while also protecting the traditional Vietnamese landscape on the golf courses.
At Laguna Golf Lang Co, a trio of buffalo will help manage the fields by eating weeds and excess crops in the area, instead of requiring machinery and manpower to maintain them. And not only do they provide an important service in tending the fields, the animals also bring an attractive visual effect to the golf course, which is already very "heavy" on spatial vision.
The rice fields are not just for show though, they can be harvested twice a year, yielding up to 20 tonnes of rice, which is used to support the organic farm at Laguna Lang Co and donated to families and seniors in the area.
The fields at Laguna Golf Lang Co are harvested twice a year and yield up to 20 tonnes of rice.
“We knew that having holes that weave through rice paddies would be a unique and memorable experience for golfers,” said Paul Jansen, the leading golf course architect who assisted Faldo with the design. “There was also the potential for the concept to give back to the community in a sustainable and aesthetically regenerative way. All the best golf courses have character and a sense of place, and we felt that if we could adapt to our surroundings well, we would be on the way to achieving something really good.”
