Justin Timberlake's golf course: birdie or bogey?

Is there such a thing as an environmentally friendly golf course? One could argue that it's not very nice to spread all that fertilizer and deploy all those lawn mowers over vast acreage that's accessible to only a few people. Golf courses may be green, but they aren't very "green."

Let's see if Justin Timberlake (of all people) can do something about it. Where gossip blogs and green blogs cross paths is the news that JT, who is an excellent golfer, by the way, has decided to buy a defunct course in Tennessee called Big Creek and recraft it into the ultimate eco-friendly golf venue. With the land slated for development and scheduled to be sold at auction, Timberlake swept in and grabbed the 303 acres and now plans to add new buildings that will be constructed to the highest LEED standards possible.

Timberlake told PGATour.com, "After we had the golf course we said why don't we refurbish it and make it even nicer for the community. Then I asked questions about what we could possibly do, and we found out we could actually make it a 'green course.' So when it's finished this summer it will be a Platinum LEED-certified green course. The first in the United States of America, so that's pretty exciting that you could take all that land and make it eco-friendly."

But let's be clear: no golf course can be LEED-certified. While the buildings constructed around it can get the LEED nod, there is no certification for indoor/outdoor venues such as this, at least not yet. Given how much water golf courses consume, how much energy it takes to maintain them, and how much runoff they create, it's unlikely they'll be considered environmentally anytime soon. Perhaps Timberlake can turn his course into an experimental proving ground for new green technologies. We shall see.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.