Golfers themselves can do their part to make golf more sustainable:

n Tolerate turf conditions that are less than pristine. As Alexander Radkow, former director of the United States Golf Association Green Section, titled his oft-quoted article nearly 25 years ago, “Green Is Not Great.” Grasses, and different species of grass, phase through many colors in their life cycle. Playability is more important than lush turf all the time everywhere.

n Replace your divots and do a spot re-seed when materials are provided. Translation for nongolfers: Retrieve the small grass section that your stroke took out of the turf and press it back into the dirt.

n If you are able-bodied, avoid the golf cart. “The older courses are designed to be walked,” said Jim Skorulski, agronomist for the Northeast region with the United States Golf Association Green Section.

If you carry a few clubs on your back as you head into the sunset, you may come to resemble the 13th-century Scottish forebears of modern golf, walking the sprawling and sheep-shorn (and sheep-fertilized) highland links. Green, indeed.

— NANCY HEISER