For sheer drama, there have been few more memorable Professional Golf Association Tour matches in recent years than Tiger Woods’ sudden-death playoff victory over John Daly in the October 2005 American Express Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park.
But for many environmentalists and golf course superintendents across the country, the event — which abruptly ended when the volatile Daly jerked a 3-foot putt on the second playoff hole — was notable for one other reason: Harding Park, which is a public course, has been hailed as an environmental model because, in addition to its jaw-dropping beauty, it uses far fewer pesticides than any PGA course in the country.
(Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of horticulture John Stier. Zoology professor Warren Porter is also mentioned.)