Golf courses are part of the built environment. As such, they relate to the landscape and have impacts on the larger environment. This paper explores those relationships and impacts. Growing environmental awareness coupled with the projected construction of 400 courses per year in the United States, can produce significant impacts for both the golf industry and the environment. The aim of this thesis is to create an environmental design frame of reference for approaching out-of-play areas on the golf course. An extensive literature review identifies the major environmental issues involved. Interviews with three leading golf course architects explore those issues through soliciting opinions and experiences. Site visits to nine golf courses built by these architects correlate the initial findings to physical form. Through triangulating the three research vehicles, the literature review, interviews, and site visits, a frame of reference for out-of-play areas begins to take shape. Interpretations made and conclusions reached lead to an understanding that the relationship between golf and the environment is not a simple balancing act. An interplay of sometimes conflicting forces emanating from both golf and the environment determine the eventual configuration of the landscape. However, the overall findings support a view that sensitively designed out-of-play areas can have beneficial consequences for the environment. This paper further suggests other areas and methods of study to confirm and advance an environmental frame of reference for designing out-of-play areas on the golf course.