Sustainability reimagined at Bowring Park and Golf Course
Bowring Park and Golf Course recently won the ‘Sustainable Project of the Year’ at the Golf Environment Awards. We spoke to Helen Paton about the positive sustainability changes implemented at the golf course.
Helen shared the story of how the course achieved its award-winning status: “In 2022, oneday took over the lease of Bowring Park with a clear vision; to transform its golf offer while opening the course to new audiences.”
“At the time, this 92-acre site was losing a quarter of a million pounds a year and change was essential.”
“We’ve now completely re-imagined how municipal golf can work as a thriving, self-sustaining space. Bowring is proof that sustainable regeneration can breathe new life into a golf course and make it work for communities, businesses, and the environment.”
“My role has focused on partnerships and how they can benefit the course in the long term, bringing together people we can collaborate with and learn from - whether that’s the local council, universities, golf courses, local businesses, The R&A or children’s golf charities. We want golf to be the driving force. Professors from Liverpool John Moores University have visited the course to explore ways we can work towards making it net zero. That isn’t a quick fix, but we are planning for the future.”
Sustainability can appear both simple and complex, as Helen explained: “We have used the golf course and park to bring sustainability to life. This includes rewilding areas with native plants, improving biodiversity and creating natural habitats such as bug hotels and bird boxes. It’s also about educating people – every hole on the golf course is named as one of the UN sustainability development goals. So whilst people play, we’re educating them about the importance of sustainability.”
“We need to look at the bigger picture of sustainability in golf. We are installing solar panels and electrical vehicle chargers, but sustainability can also be about introducing golf to new people to keep it thriving. We need to remove as many barriers as possible to bring more people into the game and greenkeeping.”
oneday has a 125-year lease on the golf course and Helen outlined their early goals: “In 2024, we launched grow: The Sustainability Campus - an ambitious project designed to make Bowring Park and Golf Course a showcase for environmental responsibility. We now encourage other business to visit and learn from us, while also enhancing the golfing experience. For this to succeed, we need to focus on the small steps within a larger initiative. Our vision goes beyond simply recruiting more staff or increasing membership; sustainability projects are at the heart of everything we do.”
“Even when it comes to water management, we’re consulting Liverpool John Moore’s University to consider what to do with the volume of water on the course. Ecologists and flood resilience experts have advised how we can improve drainage in a sustainable way, and keep the course open year-round.”
When asked about the nomination for ‘Sustainable Project of the Year’, Helen recalled: “Owen James from England Golf mentioned that we’ve been disrupting traditional golf course management. We’re never going to fit the mould of traditional golf courses - we don’t have committees and we don’t have a dress code for golfers. But, when putting our award submission together, it made me so proud to think about how much we’ve achieved.”
“Sustainable practices have become part of our day-to-day work, yet people are recognising how different our approach is. The whole team has brought a new culture to the Golf Course and Park, and we can’t wait to show everyone what the future holds.”
“Whilst it’s incredibly rewarding to have won the award, there’s so much more to come from oneday and Bowring Park. Golf courses around the UK have been contacting us to ask for advice and that is testament to the knowledge and expertise we have in our team.”
Receiving the award was a fantastic moment, but for Helen, the relationships built that evening were just as significant: “I had never attended one of those events before, and I walked away with valuable connections - people who are interested in the same things as me. That’s incredibly helpful because we can learn from one another and work together.”
Unique management
Bowring is the oldest municipal golf course in England, which presents unique management opportunities. Helen continued: “We are accessible to everyone and that’s because we don’t have lots of rigid rules and regulations. Given the status of the course, we want to encourage a diverse range of participants to get involved – for instance: players can wear whatever they like and they can play, even if they’ve never tried golf before. It’s been wonderful to welcome new people to the course. We recently hosted sixty-five local school children in the pouring rain to show them what golf can be.”
