Environmental campaigners have been mocked online for filling golf holes at courses in France with cement to make a point about irrigation – even though water is required to make cement.
Others mocked their perceived lack of understanding of how golf holes are made.
France has been experiencing a heatwave for the last few weeks, which has resulted in almost all of the country’s 96 water departments imposing water use restrictions. However, golf courses, like most businesses that require irrigation in order to survive, are partially exempt provided they irrigate during nighttime hours and only at a maximum of 30 percent of their normal water usage.
This has not gone down well with Extinction Rebellion Toulouse, which posted images on social media of golf courses being vandalised.
Activists said that golf is the “leisure industry of the most privileged”, amid reports that 100 French villages are short of drinking water.
Vielle-Toulouse and Blagnac have been some of the golf courses affected by the activists, with a recent petition from those activists stating that “economic madness takes precedence over ecological reason”.
These water bans in France are decided nationally, but the enforcement is at the discretion of regional officials. Currently, one area, Ille-et-Villaine in western France, has banned the watering of golf courses.
Speaking about the action taken, Gérard Rougier of the French Golf Federation stated: “A golf course without a green is like an ice-rink without ice,” adding that 15,000 people worked in golf courses across the country and that greens would die in three days without water.
The action has led to discussions on social media, in which some people mocked the activists for using cement – which requires a large amount of water to make.
Others stated that greenkeepers would just dig other holes on the green to place new hole cups.
And others questioned the point that the sport is for the ‘privileged’, stating that this is not the case.
This comes as a survey conducted by Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) shows water usage at golf courses has dropped dramatically in the last 20 years.
Golf courses in the USA used 29 percent less water in 2020 compared with usage in 2005.
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