Shovel holes. This is the discovery made this weekend on the course of the National Golf of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, located in Guyancourt. Individuals entered the site and dug several small craters around hole number 18 of one of the courses on this site hosting prestigious international competitions, such as the Ryder Cup in 2018.
The action was not claimed on the spot but the group Extinction Rebellion Paris – Île-de-France echoed it on social networks. A poster with the inscription “Green not very green” was left on the spot, probably to protest against the maintenance of the golf course in times of drought. On Twitter, the group denounces “this leisure industry which benefits a privileged minority and which benefits from exemptions on water restrictions, even though France is hit by an unprecedented drought and the agricultural sector is suffering”. .
Several golf courses in France were vandalized during the summer to point the finger at the water consumption devoted to this leisure activity, including one a few days ago in the Oise, in Monchy-Humières near Compiègne. Actions that had hitherto spared the Yvelines, the leading French golf department with around thirty sites and 28,000 licensees. Only one operation had been organized last August by environmental activists at the Saint-Germain golf course: to alert on water resources, they had installed a small vegetable garden there…
Efforts made and to be made
The French Golf Federation regrets this Monday “a lack of knowledge of this sport”, which remains the fourth in France with 437,000 licensees and 800,000 regular practitioners. “Golf courses have made many efforts on water consumption, with sometimes substantial investments. These people would be surprised to know that we work in particular with the National Museum of Natural History around biodiversity. “While stressing that the watered plots have been drastically limited due to the context and indicating that “the doors of the golf courses are open”.
For her part, the president of the Ecologist Pole at the Île-de-France Regional Council and former mayor of Évecquemont, called on professionals and elected officials to sit around a table this fall to discuss solutions to find lasting solutions.