It's shortly before five on a golden and gleaming northern California afternoon. Most people are winding down from the workday. But not Ray Davies. He's just getting wound up.

Davies, the director of golf course maintenance and construction for CourseCo, a golf course management and development company based in Petaluma, Calif., motions with his arms and hands while waxing about two of his favorite subjects — golf and the environment.

"What you've got in a guy like me is a million opinions," Davies says.

Deer and other wildlife are a common sight at Crystal Springs Golf Course.

Later, Davies sits at a small table in the clubhouse at Crystal Springs Golf Course, an idyllic design in Burlingame, Calif., and talks about the environmental maintenance programs CourseCo has implemented on the ecologically sensitive site. The course, which sits atop the placid Crystal Springs Reservoir, offers sights to behold from an array of angles.

The view overlooking the 23,000-acre reservoir, part of the Peninsula Watershed that is home to the highest concentration of rare and endangered species in the Bay area, might be the most stunning. The reservoir's vivid blue water sparkles in the late-afternoon sun. Its sandy shore bleeds into a dense stand of timber, that includes cypress, pines and firs. From the golf course, the distant trees fuse to form a dark-green mass of brush that ascends a steep ridge and jets with jagged edges into the soft blue sky.

"The scenery is just beautiful here," Davies says.

It's a postcard view that Davies doesn't take for granted. And because the view originates from a golf course —hisgolf course —it's even more special to him.

That's because Davies has spent a good part of his career trying to convince detractors that golf courses — often hailed as environmental foes because of their perceived lavish use of water, fertilizer and pesticides — can operate in sync with Mother Nature. And Crystal Springs Golf Course, built in the 1920s, offers proof. The course has earned a slew of honors for its environmental accomplishments since CourseCo took over its management in 1996.

Crystal Springs Golf Course, CourseCo's first Fully Certified Cooperative Sanctuary, offers stunning views.

Such awards are common with most of CourseCo's properties. The company has made a name for itself in northern California for its environmental expertise. It's a reason why CourseCo was awarded California's prestigious Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in 2003.

The 48-year-old Davies, a past winner of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's Environmental Stewardship Award, is a force behind CourseCo's environmental achievements. Since joining the company in 1996, Davies has spearheaded an effort to get all CourseCo courses involved with the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP), an education and certification program that instructs golf courses on how to protect the environment. Audubon International, a not-for-profit organization that helps golf courses implement environmental management plans to improve efficiency and promote conservation, operates the program.

Of the 13 daily-fee golf courses that CourseCo manages, 11 have become Fully Certified Cooperative Sanctuaries, which means the courses demonstrate a high degree of environmental quality by utilizing best-management practices in a number of areas, including environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, outreach and education, chemical-use reduction and safety, water conservation and water-quality management. The two remaining courses should be fully certified by the year's end.

When asked about his environmental prowess, Davies says, "I don't know that I have prowess. I have knowledge. I've dedicated a lot of time to reading up on the subject."