Next steps toward improving estimates of golf course net climate impact—The development of a methodology for individual golf courses to measure soil organic carbon stocks and sequestration

Abstract The goal of this study was to begin developing a methodology with which individual golf courses can measure their soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and sequestration. We propose a two‐tiered methodology that starts with the space‐for‐time substitution method but then graduates to the longitudinal method. Space‐for‐time allows golf courses to compare their SOC stock to the SOC stock of the surrounding land use, whereas the longitudinal method provides a high‐resolution carbon sequestration estimate after 5 years. The first tier of this methodology was tested on two golf courses that are part of the same golf facility in the United Kingdom. The two golf courses and the agricultural fields adjacent to them, which also represented the historical land use of the golf courses, were sampled to determine their SOC stocks. We recognize that the SOC stock trajectories of the golf courses and neighboring crop fields are unknown, and thus we do not use the term carbon sequestration to describe the differences in carbon stocks between the two land uses. Instead, we use the term counterfactual carbon storage to describe that the SOC stock of the surrounding agricultural fields was the best available representation of what the SOC stock of the land the golf courses are now on would have been had the golf courses not been built. We found the golf courses had higher SOC stocks than the surrounding agricultural fields, which corresponded to 0.41 and 0.77 Mg C ha −1 year −1 more carbon in the soils of the golf courses than on the surrounding agricultural fields. Maintenance emissions from the time of construction to the present were also estimated to calculate the lifecycle net climate impact of the golf courses. Our results highlight the importance of emissions reductions if golf courses are to be carbon neutral throughout their lifecycle.