Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club receives prestigious GEO-certification

Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club has received a prestigious sustainability award after receiving support from Bridgend County Borough Council’s ‘Dune 2 Dunes’ project.

The club has been awarded GEO-certification – an environmental management award which recognises advanced sustainability in golf, having made important contributions in protecting nature, conserving resources and strengthening communities.

It is among just a few golf clubs in Wales to have received the award.

Our Dunes 2 Dunes project is a collaboration to sustainably manage the Bridgend coast. As part of that, we have been working with golf clubs to obtain GEO-certification.

Receiving the award is a real achievement not only for the golf club but also for biodiversity and resilience to flooding. Sand dunes are wild, iconic landscapes with biodiversity hotspots where orchids still survive alongside songbirds, butterflies and a wide array of endangered insects.

In achieving this, our team has helped to undertake very successful sustainability projects, including re-profiling dunes and creating bare sand to allow sand to move again, lowering the surface of dried-out dune hollows to re-create pools and wet habitat, and removing scrub and invasive non-native species which are smothering and stabilising the dunes.

Cabinet member for education and regeneration Charles Smith

The project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

It is a collaboration of organisations, landowners, farmers and golf courses working together to sustainably manage the Bridgend county borough coastline.

Simon Hopkin, manager of the Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club, said: “We are committed to the maintenance and preservation of the golf course for future generations in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner.

“We will continuously improve our environmental performance year on year and will liaise with local and national conservation bodies to initiate and action projects that will enhance the environment around us and reduce the impact on the environment.

“We are custodians of this great golf course and we are committed to enhancing and engaging with our staff, members, visitors and the community.

“We are so proud to have achieved the GEO accreditation and working on the Dunes 2 Dunes project has been such a rich and rewarding experience for myself and my team.”

In March 2019, Royal Porthcawl became the first golf club in Wales to obtain the GEO-Certification sustainability award as part of the ‘Dune 2 Dunes’ project.