As golfing tourists drive down freshly watered green fairways this summer, while the rest of Spain endures a devastating drought, a crusading eco-golfer has opened the country's first water-free course.

　　Paco López, a sports lecturer at a Madrid university, has designed a course that twists through dried-out grassland and past autochthonous trees, shrubs and aromatic herbs near the town of Quijorna, 20 miles west of Madrid.

　　Inspired by the first courses on linksland in Scotland and concerned about the sustainability of the 20 water-guzzling courses a year being built for tourists on the Spanish costas, he hopes the eco-golf concept will catch on.

　　"You only have to look at the origins of golf to realise that it was played in natural environments," he said. "In a country like Spain, with such a dramatic lack of water, we are proposing a new and different way of doing things."

　　His nine-hole course, owned by Quijorna's town council, has replaced greens with "browns".

　　Greens may be added later, when the course is extended to 18 holes, but only these and the approaches would be watered - requiring between 5% and 10% of the water of a conventional course.

　　Mr López said the concept would allow golfers to appreciate real landscape. "The idea here is not just to enjoy the sport and take exercise but also to have contact with real nature and incorporate the idea of sustainable development."

　　The WWF (formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature) has said that the hundreds of golf courses around the Mediterranean are a growing environmental hazard, with each consuming the same amount of water as a town of 12,000 people.

　　Although most golf courses in Spain are meant to use recycled water, Greenpeace claims that only two out of 28 in the Madrid region do so. Local water authorities began disciplinary procedures against 10 of the courses for illegal use of water earlier this summer.

西班牙人设计出新型环保高尔夫球场

　　在西班牙，当你在刚刚浇过水的满眼翠绿的高尔夫球场上频频挥杆时，你可能会想到该国其它地方正在经受着严重的干旱。为此，西班牙一位狂热的环保高尔夫爱好者最近设计出了该国首座几乎不用浇水的新型环保高尔夫球场。

　　据英国《卫报》8月10日报道，帕科-洛佩斯是马德里一所大学里的体育讲师，他设计的这座球场坐落于马德里以西20英里(约合32公里)处的奎霍尔纳小镇附近。那里是一片极度干枯的草地，上面还留有已经枯死的树木、灌木丛等植物。球场的球道蜿蜒穿梭于其间。

　　这个9洞球场的所有者为奎霍尔纳镇议会。在这个球场里，原本应有的绿色已被“褐色”取而代之，当日后它被扩展成18洞球场时，可能会补充上些许碧绿，但也只会在球洞及其附近区域浇上一些水，该球场的耗水量仅相当于传统球场的5%到10%。

　　洛佩斯表示，他的设计想法是受到苏格兰海边沙丘地带的首座高尔夫球场的启发。每年，在西班牙海岸线上要建设多达20座高耗水的高尔夫球场。洛佩斯希望自己的环保高尔夫概念能够被大众接受。他说：“你只要看一下高尔夫球的起源就会明白，它本来就是一种在纯自然环境下进行的游戏，在像西班牙这样一个极度缺水的国家里，我们打算建设一种全新的、与众不同的高尔夫球场。”

　　洛佩斯认为，环保高尔夫球场可以令人们在娱乐的同时欣赏到真正的风景。他说：“这一想法不仅可以使人体会到游戏的乐趣和强身健体，还能够让人接触到真实的大自然并将可持续发展的理念付诸实践。”

　　世界野生动物基金会表示，围绕地中海沿岸建造的数百座高尔夫球场正在成为一种环境公害，每座球场的耗水量相当于一座1.2万人的小镇。尽管西班牙政府规定该国的大部分高尔夫球场必须使用中水，但绿色和平组织声称，在马德里地区的28座球场中只有2家在按规定办事。地方水务管理者已经开始对在今年夏初非法用水的10座球场进行了惩罚。(

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