If you take the argument to the extreme, you could argue that they should plant even more trees at Augusta National.

Wow...sad to see so many brain dead golfers out there. To disparage the entire thrust of the issue...improving the planet we live on through better practices...by reducing it to "global warming" radicals is pathetic. Wake up gang! Sure, the earth has had temperature and climactic fluctuations throughout it's history...but to think our global crapping up of the place we live on has no serious impact...as Johnny Mac would say..."you CAN'T be serious. If we all each just do a little bit to improve how we treat the old girl...the earth and ALL of us that inhabit it will be much better off. Cheers!

Someone was right in one of the Boo-posts a couple of days ago: Something is definitely seriously wrong in the American educational system.
Q: Does an increase of CO2 in earth's atmosphere increase the temperature in earth's atmosphere?
A: Well, that's not really a theory, that's a fact. That's the green-house effect, which enables us to live here in the first place. OK. Next question:
Q: Does relentlessly burning up fossil fuels increase the CO2 rate in earth's atmosphere?
A: Well, I can't really see how you can say no to that, unless you can prove that pouring hot water into a glass of cold water doesn't make the cold water warmer.
OK, add those two together, and let's see...YEAH, MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING IS BULLSHIT! I WANT TO DRIVE MY SUV! I WANT TO CONSUME!

Wow, those people are seriously deranged. I'll bet they keep their house in nice condition, but hey, screw everybody else, right? There are reasons to be environmentally friendly that don't necessarily have anything to do with global warming. I wonder if the people who wrote those comments refuse to play Audubon sanctioned golf courses.

The walls, what you could see of them: Masters’ green. Augusta National Golf Club green. Pantone Matching System number 560.

Waymon had the solution memorized. Seventy-two point five percent green, seven point five percent of warm red, and then you throw in exactly twenty percent black.

Or you could look at it this way, he’d explain to you if you were still listening: you got fourteen and a half parts green, one and a half parts warm red, and four parts black.

Masters’ green. Five. Six. Zero. Waymon knew in his heart it was the green that was the best.

When are those idiots going to wake up and realize that when it comes to golf course management, brown is better than green? Aren't they tired of courses that overwater their fairways so that balls either plug, or hit and roll a foot? That's fine for the big kids who can fly it 280 in the air. Gimme the Ballyneals or Talking Sticks of the world, where I can hit my running draw (nee rope hook) and actually get the ball out there somewhere.

I don't gave a rats ass what Al Gore thinks about golf. I'm no tree hugger by any means. But brown is beautiful. . .

Azalea, got down here. It's your man callin' you. Get down here, gal.. Azalea. Azalea. You're a southern gal, always will be. No make-up gonna change that. Azalea, get down here.

"Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on earth."
Thank you Stephen!!!

I get your point Hawkeye. Thing is, the planet naturally goes through changes. Around 3,000-4,000 years ago (a dot in time), the Sahara was teeming with life and greenery.
Guess here is that we are just speeding up the process of things that occur naturally. Is that good? Probably not.

Hot Lips: "Thing is, the planet naturally goes through changes."

True, but as you indirectly point out, it's not likely to change back if we continue down this road.

I still have that image of Royal Liverpool, during the Open, burned into my mind. It looked amazing and so much different than our North American courses. During that same time of year my home course, in Ontario, features lush fairways & greens and bone dry yellow rough. While the rest of the Province is being asked to conserve water, the course is covered in plush green carpet. If you miss the fairway, you're guaranteed 30 yards of roll. Hit it in the fairway and it stops dead in its tracks.

We're also a 'struggling' course with a shrinking membership and too much competition. I just don't understand why we can't cut back on the maintenance/ watering costs. I'd love to see the course change with the seasons and play hard and fast in the middle of the Summer.

Less water = longer drives! Oh, and it helps the environment and stuff. There's that too

"And perhaps share with us why you found the Golf Digest spread so offensive that you would deprive yourself of future instruction wisdom from David Leadbetter?"

Ha. That's funny, because I had thought of writing in to threaten canceling my subscription if they continued printing "instructional" articles from Leadbetter. But, potayto, potahto.