It is quiet on the Buna Vista golf course in Sagogn. The sun climbs over the mountain top and sends its first rays onto the green. A jay can be heard, a bee buzzes, pleasantly clear air everywhere. The day awakens and with it the golf course. Kurt Deflorin lays out the golf ball, swings out and skilfully hits it towards hole 1.

Deflorin is not just a normal golfer. He is the head greenkeeper in Sagogn. Today he meets with his colleagues from Arosa and the Engadine for knowledge transfer and a round of golf. Vitus Pabst is here from the Golf Club Arosa and Alfi Stoisser from the Engadine Golf Club. Both are also head greenkeepers. Normally they don't have time to play golf themselves during the season. To put it simply, their job is to ensure that golfers find perfect conditions on the course. They are the bosses for the maintenance of the golf courses.

In Graubünden, everyone is pulling in the same direction. Golfing and golf courses are therefore evolving. You have a lot of experience. The oldest golf course in Switzerland is located in Samedan and is over 100 years old. Currently, the topic of biodiversity dominates. Graubünden Ferien has launched a project with the cantonal Office for Nature and the Environment and the specialist organisation Terraviva to promote biodiversity on golf courses and is constantly optimising it.

On golf courses, valuable habitats can be preserved, but also newly created. According to the Graubünden Office for Nature and the Environment, which is involved in the project, the potential to promote biodiversity on Graubünden's golf courses is enormous. If the golf courses and their peripheral areas are properly maintained, rare animal and plant species can also live here. Deflorin, Pabst and Stoisser have been trained for this purpose and they regularly exchange ideas about this.

Biodiversity on the golf courses is constantly being promoted. After an inventory, an individual decision is made as to which measure makes the most sense in which region and then implemented. Dozens of trees and hundreds of shrubs have been planted in Sagogn. The trees and hedges create habitats for insects and are thus a networked hunting area for the bat species of the greater horseshoe bat. As a nice side effect, the plants also protect golfers from "stray balls".

If the golf courses become greener, it will help everyone. Amphibians, birds, insects, reptiles or mammals benefit from this. And golfers play with a green conscience. In addition to the spectacular nature, this is one more reason to stay a little longer in the "Patgific Canton".