The Omega European Masters sees a sustainability initiative take wing this year with 25 new birdboxes installed around Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club.
The storied Swiss event has long been a leader in the environmental field and in recent years, it is the local wildlife that has been benefitting from biodiversity work being done high in the mountains.
The course has been Golf Environmental Organisation (GEO) certified since 2022, the same year a biologist was brought in to help revegetate parts of the course.
It was noted that the youth of many of the trees meant that they did not have cavities in which local chickadees, white-fronted redstarts and anteater torcols breed and nest.
With white-fronted redstarts and anteater torcols on the red-list of threatened breeding birds in Switzerland, the idea was born to place the birdboxes around the course and give them a place they could flourish, with the initiative likely to benefit 25 per cent of bird species living around the course.
The boxes are built by local school children and the 25 installed this spring takes the total on the course to 31.
"The initiative was supported by the golf club and the Omega European Masters to compensate for the lack of natural cavities," said Yves Mittaz, CEO, Omega European Masters.
"These boxes provide a valuable habitat for several local bird species, two of which are on the red-list of threatened breeding birds in Switzerland.
"The project also serves a social purpose: the golf club decided to work with several local schools in order to carry out the initiative. The children built the boxes themselves and later installed them with the golf club biologist."
With further efforts also taking place in transport, waste and catering for the event, the Omega European Masters continues to be a shining light for sustainability in golf.
