Cohesive conservation at Royal Mid Surrey Golf Club
Awarded the 2025 UK Environmental Golf Club of the Year at the 30th Annual Golf Environment Awards recently, this prestigious accolade recognises outstanding commitment to sustainable course management, conservation, and environmental stewardship.
Pitchcare spoke to Course Manager Gavin Kinsella and Sustainability Manager Claire Silva (pictured below) about the achievement. Located in Richmond upon Thames, the club’s two 18-hole courses encompass over 50% natural habitat, including wetlands, acid grasslands, and wet woodlands, earning it Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) status.
Growing for the future
The golf course has always implemented small conservation projects. However, the team has stepped up its efforts in recent years. Claire explained: “I don’t have a budget for my department and the amount we’ve spent on sustainability projects has been minimal. We started by getting our GEO Certification and began capturing baseline data; that was a valuable exercise because it made us realise how much we already do, but also how much more is needed.” Gavin added: “For the past fifteen years, golf courses have had to be ecologically minded. In this era, greenkeepers and course managers are very much aligned with wildlife, ecology and conservation.”
The key to success has been bringing the golf club together to work on conservation, Gavin said: “In the past, the conservation policy wasn’t communicated very well to members, and our work wasn’t connected to any other part of the club. Several years ago, Claire moved into her role, embraced the sustainability initiative and made it club-wide so that it is now under one umbrella. We used to focus on greenkeeper-oriented conservation, but this didn’t have a clear purpose. Now, we have our aims and we want to achieve things with purpose.”
Gavin suggested the importance of having a figure like Claire to guide the sustainability drive: “It helps us to have a central hub for conservation and sustainability at the golf course. In the past, I was like other greenkeepers, just getting on with the work. Now, with Claire as our point of contact, who is energised about sustainability, I won’t slip into bad habits. I always record my water, fertiliser and chemical use because that is important information for Claire.”
“Historically, we used to cut into all four corners of the property, under trees and between holes. One of our first initiatives was the eco-rough areas and we had to educate members; it wasn’t that we were being lazy and not cutting the rough; there was a greater aim to it. Some thought we were trying to save manpower hours and reduce wear and tear on machinery. They didn’t quite understand that we were trying to add to the habitats and conservation. Once they understood what we were doing, they got onboard.”
Eco Rough to increase habitat for wildlife and reduce use of combustion engines for mowing.
The club is also focusing on moving away from fully diesel-powered machines. Gavin said: “Unfortunately, we aren’t quite in a position to go fully electric, but we are investing in
hybrid machinery, which is reducing the chances of hydraulic oil leaks on greens. Petrol hybrids are a significant improvement over diesel engines. We are now doing our part on the course in terms of managing and preparing conservation projects, but we are also working with the kitchen and the pro shop to create our own compost. The plan is to turn that over in the next few years and then return it to the golf course - a project very much owned by our Head Gardener who re-uses a lot of waste materials from the courses.”
Becoming award-winning
“The GEO dinner is an essential part of Harrogate week,” Gavin continued. “We have been contributors to that for several years. The engagement of the greenkeeping community has kept the awards going. To be a nominee is always a great occasion; you feel part of something bigger. You are up against great clubs, from whom you can learn throughout the evening. The teams confidence wasn’t sky-high about winning the award, but I felt that we had that secret weapon, which was Claire Silva. Winning was a fantastic feeling; we now have the responsibility to be a role model,” Gavin added.
Claire analysed how it felt to win the award, as well as highlighting the positive impact it has had on the club: “It took a while for me to process that we had won the award. It was brilliant to get recognition for the hard work that has been implemented over the past few years.”
Claire outlined the work that has gone into becoming the 2025 UK Environmental Golf Club of the Year: “Our communication project has been the most successful venture. People don’t associate environment and conservation with golf clubs. The target for last year was to look beyond our own estate and see how we can communicate with the members and the local community. Encouraging members to participate in activities like tree planting days and litter picking gets them involved in the project. We’ve also done school visits to educate about conservation and recently hosted a bat walk at the course.”
Ecology volunteers habitat management
Future growth
“We are now working with other organisations such as The Thames Landscape Strategy, as well as becoming members of the Biodiversity Action Partnership Group” commented Claire. “They work on action plans for species and biodiversity as a whole. With their support, we were able to carry out a Black Poplar project, where we planted fifteen trees to connect different sites. That was about what we can offer externally to the community.”
We’ve only hosted one bat walk and one school day and it would be nice to do more of those types of things in the future; it allows us to educate. We want to do more work with The Bat Conservation Trust, which has been conducting surveys across the site. It’s about being a small part of something bigger.”
GEA Awards 2025 Enviromental Golf Club of the Year Winners.
Gavin concluded: “I would like to introduce more wispy grass species for those rough areas. We want to move away from the Yorkshire Fog grasses and bring in lighter grasses. We want a compact, dense base but with wispy tops. The refinement of our eco-rough areas will be a key activity in 2025.”