Find out all about artificial turf golf courses in this short report.
As Australia's Sunshine State of Zilzie Bay struggles through one of its worst droughts on record, a passionate golfing couple from Queensland have built the golf course with synthetic turf largest in the world in an attempt to save water.
The developers, Rita and Chris Dadson, use artificial turf in their design for a golf course in ZilzieBay because of the high salt content in the soil which makes it very difficult to think of keeping natural grass on this course.
Chris says the synthetic pavement for this golf course will have a lifespan of at least 14 years before being replaced.
"When we developed the golf course, we suddenly realised that we were taking salt out of our lakes and couldn't keep the water fresh, so we decided to go with synthetic turf," Chris said.
"I think it's actually going to attract a lot of people to come and have a look at what we've done," said Rita.
"Everyone is having the same problems, and keeping up with covering the costs of a natural grass pitch is much higher than what we've done here."
This 40-hectare, 18-hole course will cost you much less to maintain than a traditional grass course.
"On a normal golf course, you might spend between $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million to maintain it per year," Chris said.
"I think we're probably going to spend about $ 100,000 to $150,000 a year on maintaining this. artificial grass golf course including staff.
Waterproofing of a golf course
Golf Queensland CEO Lindsay Ellis says the golf course is quite unique.
"Zilzie Bay is one of the few 18-hole courses in Australia that would have artificial turf," he said.
"We have another one which is a very small as artificial turf golf course and it's in a remote area called Croydon."
He says it is an undertaking to be studied so that other golf courses in the area facing similar water problems may be able to see and appreciate the change.
"Drought affects golf courses significantly," he said.
"What you find in Australia is, golf courses that have sand scraped greens, which are created by using oil and sand mix, because they don't have the resources or the climate or the water to produce a grass putting green all year round.
"So there is a possibility that some of those sand scratches could be replaced by artificial turf."
Chris says it's not just the artificial turf that is drought-proof and against Queensland's unpredictable weather.
"We've had some pretty bad storms, the year has been underwater, just because we're trying to contain a lot of freshwater here," he said.
"We just let it drain and then send the guys out with brooms and brushes, the artificial turf we just clean it and it looks as good as new."
