Posted on 12/10/2021 3:23:49 AM PST by Libloather
(CNN) - The 30 or so golf courses in the Salt Lake County of Utah drink up around nine million gallons of water a day to stay pristine green -- that's more than 13 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Managing the turf on golf courses also means using carbon-intensive fertilizers, plenty of mowing and, in many cases, clearing forests or trees that were soaking up carbon-dioxide to make way for long tracts of fairway.
In other words, golf is a dirty sport that's wrecking the planet. But it doesn't have to be.
The impact of golf on the climate and environment has led to growing calls to make the sport more sustainable -- even to play on bone-dry courses, as golfing legend Tiger Woods has enjoyed.
And it's not just to save the planet, but to save the sport itself, as the climate crisis threatens to transform many courses into muddy swamps.
The president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), Jason Straka, told CNN Sport how the climate crisis has been affecting golf in flood-threatened Florida, and in Ohio and Utah, which have been hit by warmer-than-usual weather and even drought.
"Clubs never used to have to close after two-inch rain, now they do. They also experience sunny day flooding," said Straka.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Rats! And I was just about to pay $50,000 for a membership to that swanky country club. Thank you CNN for saving me a boatload of money!
Golf is a symbol of capitalism and business, therefore, it must be destroyed.
With the decline in youth interest in golf, the game will decline naturally.
But the communists will kill it via environmental rules long before its natural death.
CO2 sequestering
sea level rise
The industry has been working toward and implementing less water usage for years and will continue to do so along with more drought tolerant grasses.
Golf courses would love to use less water. It's expensive as hell. Ditto fertilizers.
Here in golf/tourist mecca AZ (and Palm Springs) billions in revenue, thousands of jobs, and millions in tax revenue is generated with lush green fairways. We'll soon learn to love a bit less lush, I hope.
FYI...golf uses less water than cotton and much of that water is reclaimed.
Not to mention the health benefits or the environmental contributions
Maybe woke sports media resented golf because it was one of the few activities that escaped COVID idiocy...and played by the "upper class"
bunk
Revenue for the golf club industry rose steadily from 2012 to 2019, and fell in 2020 (obviously due to COVID and the shut down). So much for the climate crisis malarky.
https://www.statista.com/forecasts/311218/golf-courses-and-country-clubs-revenue-in-the-us
I can go further back, using industry figures.
2000 $62.2b
2005 $75.9b
2011 $68.8b
2016 $84.1b
U.S. Golf Economy Reports for the years cited
So, the industry declined from 2005 to 2011, and since 2011 has recovered nicely.
As to the environmental impact of golf courses: they are like well-maintained lawns, not unlike well-maintained municipal parks, college and corporate campuses, and the shared spaces of gated communities. They are also landscaped, with trees removed from the fairways, and grown so as to distinguish one fairway from another, and otherwise to create beautiful spaces. Golf courses usually involve waterways, both to make the game more challenging and to create beautiful spaces.
Golf courses can use environmentally-friendly methods to manage their spaces. When done well, the golf course is attractive not only for golf, but for hiking and other purposes, and the values of homes adjoining the course are enhanced. It is, therefore, in the interests of golf courses to do a good job in developing their properties.
But small-minded and hate-filled people don’t see the natural inclinations of private property-owners to maintain and enhance the values of their property. Rather, they project their own laziness and greed onto others, and suppose private property-owners only want to maximize short-term gains and totally discount the future, like so many drug-addled rock stars who earn millions and wind up bankrupt.
Dearest CNN: could you list what is not endangered by global warming? I think I know what it is: Fake News...
Golf courses here in SC remained open during the Covid craze. I’m not aware of one case of Covid among the 100s of guys and gals I have played golf with during the past two years. Golf course are Covid free zones.
Golf courses are used to raise money for charities. Not to mention that drinking beer and smoking cigars are not only allowed, but encouraged. High tipping beer cart girls can fund their college education and graduate debt free.
Tiger Woods is one of the most beloved golfers of our time. Golf fosters racial harmony. Golf courses are open to the public. Anyone with a collared shirt and shoes with plastic spikes can play regardless of race, color or religion. No one would care if a trans played golf whether as a man or woman. The handicap system keeps it fair.
Golf courses are nature sanctuaries that must be preserved. AOC’s new green deal should be pared down to subsidize the maintenance of all golf courses and to limit green fees to $20 a round. To solve gender equity issues, women should be limited to playing on Mondays. Desalination plants and pipelines should be built to irrigate desert golf courses. Water supplies should be diverted from blue urban areas if need be. Water could not be put to better use than to preserve these lovely wild life preserves.
I’m curious: exactly how many “CO2 eating” trees were removed to be replaced with other shrubs and trees and acres upon acres of grass? How much CO2 was consumed before, and how much after?
A golf course is the waste of a perfectly good rifle range.
Sorry, had to say it.
I’ve only played once and didn’t enjoy it enough to continue.
I used to work for a guy who literally had an Excel chart of every score on every hole of every game he ever played, he and the people he played with.
Neat thing about him. He made it a point to talk about things other than golf when I was around because he knew I didn’t play. I really respected him for that.
I've used Titleist Pro Vs for over 60 years but since they barred the "Let's Go Brandon" stamp on their special order balls, I've decided to switch to Callaway.
They will never miss my couple of hundred bucks for 3-4 dozen balls, but it will make me feel better.
Only some of them are open to the public.
Golf takes quite a bit of perseverance to overcome the self loathing that follows after a bad shot. It is an emotionally grueling game.
I would be interested know what your buddy gets out of his spread sheet. Seems like a lot of work. There are only 4 shot types: tee, fairway, chip and putt. It is glaringly obvious which shot(s) need improvement.
ps
I also belong to a rifle range. I enjoy banging the gong at 100, 200 and 300 yards. It is far easier than golf.
Barzini: after all... we are not Communists.
Self-flagellation complies with all Climate Crisis Histeria.
The problem golf courses in the USA have is they all want to emulate Augusta National. Perfectly manicured lawns surrounded by thousands of flowers, lakes, landscaping, etc. They want them to be playable for the average hacker.
Go over to Scotland and they are wind swept wastelands where there is 2’ high rough on the side of the fairways. The greens are just barely green. The bunkers are 5’ deep holes in the ground. That if you hit into, you may have to hit backwards to get your ball back onto the fairway.
We need more courses like Bandon Dunes. Less courses like The Coeur D’Alene. My 2 cents.
The other thing is in the US and other places we put golf courses in the desert like Palm Springs, Scottsdale, Tucson.
We put them in places like the Kona coast of the Big Island where they brought in machines that ground up the lava, brought in top soil, palm trees and every other thing needed to make it look pretty. They stuck several golf courses in a place that gets 10” of rain a year. The good thing about the Big island is that you go up over the top of the ridge to the North and they get 100” of rain/year there. SO, there is plenty of water to pipe downhill to the sea level.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I heard that golf in Scotland goes for $800 a round and ya have to pay a caddie. I wouldn’t be able to play 3 or 4 days a weeks at that rate.
I’ve played on dune type courses. They’re freak hard and unforgiving. Satan should put out hell’s fire and plant Fesque grass if he really wants sinners to suffer.
There’s big difference in landscaping and fairway quality between a $40, $75 and $110 round golf course. Not to mention broken up cart paths. Ya get what ya pay for.
Yep. I played a course Kauai. I can’t remember its name. It was pretty and lush.
I was going to make the point that here in the low country many of the golf courses have been built on land reclaimed from sand dunes and marsh land. Believe me, there is no shortage of sand dunes and swamps around here.
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