A professional golfer faces possible consequences after hitting a hawk with a golf shot and killing it at the Grand Cypress Golf Club in Florida.

Nationwide Tour player Tripp Isenhour apologised for killing the hawk, which was being noisy as he was filming TV Show “Shoot Like A Pro” in December.

Isenhour was charged with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird, offences that have a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and fines of $1,500.

The Humane Society also wants the PGA Tour to take action against the golfer.

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report, the 39-year-old Isenhour drove up to the bird after the noise it made from about 300 yards away forced another take of the scene he was filming. He drove closer to the bird in a golf cart and started taking shots at it.

The bird stayed where it was and Isenhour gave up. The hawk then moved to within 75 yards and Isenhour resumed hitting balls at it, allegedly saying: “I’ll get him now”.

He eventually hit the hawk, which fell to the ground bleeding. Isenhour said in a statement:

“As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset. I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”

Dale Bartlett, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States, was quoted as saying:

“Because of the high profile nature of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don’t condone animal cruelty.”

American billionaire Donald Trump is seemingly bent on have a pet luxury golf resort project somewhere in the British Isles.

Recently, the Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland rejected his planning application for a sweeping golfing facility in the area, with residents fearing the project would change the character of the place forever.

Unperturbed, Trump is now reported to be looking in Northern Ireland for his dream project.

According to ireland.com, Trump’s top executives have already visited up to four potential sites in Northern Ireland as a venue for a $1 billion luxury golf resort.

Trump, himself, held talks with First Minister Ian Paisley in New York last month, although there are accusations, strenuously denied, that the media magnate is trying to play Scotland and Northern Ireland against each other.

Reports indicate that Belfast is one of the areas being looked at while Runkerry in Country Antrim is also under consideration for what is hoped to be a links-type course.

The group has already secured land for six months with the option to extend it should they decide to proceed with the project.

George Sorial, Trump’s managing director for international development, was quoted as saying:

“We would not be here if it was not for real, there is no flying kites here, I would not be wasting my time. It is a substantial piece of land, suitable for a golf course, residential and hotel.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish programme has not been entirely abandoned with Trump’s people carrying out an inquiry into how the council handled the planning application. It may yet be revived.

Latest estimates suggest that one golf course in the United States will use, in one day, roughly the same amount of water as the total amount used by 15000 American citizens in the same 24 hour period.

At the same time Donald Trump is discovering that the doughty residents of the North East of Scotland are less willing to pander to his whims than the apprentices who queue up to feel his ire and suffer the shame of ridicule on national television.

Watch out golf – the environmentalists are coming.

From trampling on sites of special scientific interest to pouring chemicals into great swathes of land throughout the known world to Tiger, Phil et al arriving at tournaments in separate fuel guzzling jets, golf is under scrutiny as never before.

These attacks on the greens from the greens would have mattered less twenty years ago. Then the environmentalist lobby could be all but written off as the kind of university drop out who ranked Marxism and hating golf as their main passions.

Not so now. Al Gore and others have changed all that. Gore could, in fact, probably make the tournament committee of a more liberal club if he wasn’t traversing the very globe he is trying to save to spread his message. Environmentalism has gone mainstream.

Golf’s reaction has not been as knee jerk as you might imagine. Since 1994 the European Tour and the R&A have been active partners in a golf ecology programme, now spearheaded by a UK based not for profit organisation called Committed to Green.

Indeed as long ago as 1999 European Golf stood shoulder to shoulder with the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Wide Fund for Nature and endorsed the Valderamma Declaration on Golf, Environment and Sustainability.

In the US efforts are also being made to try to encourage a more responsible attitude to the environment from “chip in for recycling” trash cans on courses to supporting the work of the Environmental Institute for Golf.

But is it enough? Clearly a lot of talking and some action won’t satisfy the most ardent eco warrior but golf’s powers that be are to be applauded for taking steps in the right direction. But golf, with common sense, can do more.

Firstly take some personal responsibility. Do the top players really need to fly in separate private jets each and every week?

Secondly take some decisions on how courses are managed. You can carry on pouring water and chemicals onto courses all you want but please accept that it’s bad for the planet. More than that though it’s bad for golf.

Let courses be courses. When the wind blows my game will have to adapt. Why should my game not have to adapt when there’s not much rain. I don’t want a course in China to look exactly the same as a course in Aberdeen. I don’t want a course in Texas to look and play the same as a course in Sweden.

That’s not golf.

So here’s a radical proposal. Cut down on the irrigation and artificial fertilisers that are helping to create a uniform game from a sport that should revel in its diversity. Then in one fell swoop you would appease many of the environmentalists and, hopefully, curb the need for ever longer courses and technological advances. Players would have to play again and a little bit of magic might be restored.

As for Donald Trump? Well, the main stumbling block might be his vision of building 1000 luxury homes as part of the course development. I’d guess he’s big enough to fight that on his own.