Fife Golf Trust celebrating category win at Scottish Golf Awards

The Trust is responsible for the maintenance of courses at Auchterderran, Cowdenbeath, Dunnikier, Glenrothes, Kinghorn, Lochore Meadows and Scoonie.

David Gray, golf courses manager at Fife Golf Trust, said after receiving the award during the ceremony at voco® Grand Central in Glasgow on March 14: “We're just so proud to win this award.

"The team has put a lot of effort into this project and it's things like this that just top it all off.

"Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do and we will continue down this path.

"We want to be sustainable champions. We want to be the driving force for sustainable golf practices.

“This (project) has elevated our efforts. It’s a commitment we want to deliver on and everyone has bought into it which is fantastic.

“It’s about getting the balance between golf and wildlife working together.”

With 544 hectares of green space to look after, the Trust was well aware of its environmental responsibilities and in 2023 embarked on an ambitious two-year project entitled ‘Seven Golf Course For Nature’.

With funding secured from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, the bold project aimed to enhance the biodiversity of the courses by creating and connecting habitats.

This is being achieved in the following ways: Planting of 10,000 trees and 1km of hedgerows; introducing 17 hectares of species-rich grassland; building seven wetlands and five ponds; creating bee banks on each course; naturalising freshwater ditches; removing fencing to encourage wildlife to roam; installation of owl and bat boxes.

Fife Golf Trust has long been aware of how important it is to invest in biodiversity.

In 2017, it became the first multi-course municipal golf course in the world to be award the internationally recognised GEO Certification.

The project will conclude this year but comes with a 10-year commitment from the Trust to future proof the investment.