"Brown grass makes for a richer visual environment, and frequently contributes to a more compelling playing surface."
Ron Sirak fleshes out the details of Jim Hyler's USGA presidential address, focusing on Hyler's comments about water usage and golf courses going brown.
So when Hyler directs the focus to the environment he is not so much leading the USGA into new territory as he is reminding USGA members that these are activities in which the association is already involved. He calls the Green Section "our best-kept secret" and says "that will be changing."
But there is no question that some attitudes will need to change as well. The Green Section report urges reducing the total amount of water applied to golf courses and also suggests reducing the areas of the course that are irrigated. This saves water -- and clean water is an increasingly precious resource -- and reduces the maintenance cost.
As much as the Green Section and everyday superintendents try, their efforts still can only be aided by what happens with golf courses we see on television. And unfortunately for Hyler's cause, he'll be president of the USGA at two of lushest, most manicured U.S. Open venues on the unofficial rota.
While Pebble Beach has a cutting edge maintenance facility and utilizes other "green" practices, we're still likely to see a very green golf course this June. And Congressional only knows one color.
I like Tom Dunne's approach so much that I sent him a photo to add to his collection. I hope you fellow "greenies" will send him some images of good brown golf.
Brown isn’t something merely to be grudgingly accepted. It should be celebrated as beautiful in its own right, as something that, in its interplay with green grass, draws out the natural contours and unique character of the landscape. Brown grass makes for a richer visual environment, and frequently contributes to a more compelling playing surface.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 08:26 PM
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Reader Comments (37)
"There is also a more serious side to this, because golf, hamburgers, and religion are all things that are incredibly bad for the environment. According to the U.N., in 15 years almost two billion people will be living in conditions of absolute water scarcity. And yet, a golf course in Palm Springs consumes as much water per day as an American family uses in four years. Golf courses in America consume over 114 million gallons of water a year on grass that doesn't even get you high. Golf courses also need large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides whose run-off pollutes the ground water for miles around.
This isn't just a third world problem -- there's a water shortage right now in the western United States. If I surpass my monthly water allotment here in Los Angeles, I'll get fined by the city. If I do it twice, they'll send 40,000 prisoners to live in my backyard.
But when it comes to bad for the environment, nothing -- literally -- compares with eating meat. The business of raising animals for food causes about 40 percent more global warming than all cars, trucks, and planes combined. If you care about the planet, it's actually better to eat a salad in a Hummer than a cheeseburger in a Prius."
-- Bill Maher
from "Real Time with Bill Maher" (August, 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7nDwtAVA8Y
I'll get my stole.
On a related matter, it's a shame the President's Cup will be in November 2011 in Melbourne. The course (RMGC) won't be at its best until late in our summer (around February/March) when the couch is running rampant in the warm sandy soil. It loves the heat and is the preferred strain for water savings as well. That's what I've been told, anyway.
Is your couch (bermuda) the same?
I'm all for brown, and firm and fast. But I'm in a small minority, and we won't see it, and unfortunately, a lot of American golf courses aren't necessarily designed to be played firm and fast.
I'm surprised anyone would listen to what the U.N. projects, especially these days !
Great progress has been made in the field of agronomy / turf grass management. New fertilizers, less evasive insect control, and water practices. The Aussie's say they learned how to make grass live, not grow. No doubt we need to conserve water, best served by more prudent methods, rather than what your state has done by letting acres of formerly fertile and productive farm land turn to dust to protect a minnow. Foist your vegan life-style in a more appropriate setting other than a golf blog, and for those that want to understand the true nature of man-made global warming.......just follow the money my friends.
So is this the beginning of our wake up call in the States cause it seem like we've got golf all wrong over here... let me begin to count our wayward ways:
Courses too green, courses too manicured, courses too watered, courses too penal, courses too long, distance between tees & greens requiring motorized carts, half way houses, private clubs with zero public access, 5 hour rounds or more...
SOS SOS SOS SOS
And the USGA can't do it alone. It'll take the golf course owners association, superintendents groups, industry suppliers (who'll have figure out how to adjust their business models to turn a profit in the new paradigm), the PGA and the TOUR and the pro tour tournament executives.
Did I leave anyone out? Oh yeah, the biggest challenge will come in convincing the core group of golf participants—the avid players—that the Augusta National look isn't the model to emulate.
If the golf industry can hire a lobbying firm to protect their finanacal interests in Washington, surely they can engage a PR group to come up with a long-range plan to wean golf from the overuse of water and chemicals and educate golfers about the benefits of being down with brown.
If you live in Southern California, then try Mountain View in Santa Paula. Yes, it would probably better serve as a dog track. But a browner course you will not find. Indeed, the ball actually runs when the course is dry. A sight you rarely see on an overly-green course.
My sense is that the overly-green courses are private clubs and high-priced "daily fees." There is a brown alternative out there. You just have to be willing to slum it. But it sure would be nice if there were some better courses that embraced brown.
Erik,
Originally, a long, long time ago, I would have never thought I would ever hear you say that! (from reading your website in the past, and when you used to seem to be at odds with much that Geoff had to say regarding the equipment) I'm glad to see that outlook change. We all had to do it at one time or another!
Hail! Hail! to every different color in the fairway! I also think you should be able to use a putter from a 100 yards in if you want to!
What can brown do for golf?
Sure, I'll follow the money straight to the golf clubs pissing it away in shameless amounts of water usage, like the one in Palm Springs that uses more in one day than an American family does in four years. And I would say this is the appropriate setting for such a discussion since water conservation was the core of this blog post, ("...clean water is an increasingly precious resource" from the USGA).
Then again, there is brown and there is damn near moribund, which we saw at Hoylake a couple years ago. There's no way in the world that Americans would tolerate that sort of playing condition, IMHO.
I thought Hoylake looked outstanding. I'd love to see courses like that over here. But you are right that most Americans want their courses to look like Augusta. But there should be room for the opposite.
The tour (even Augusta) would showcase one hole that is water sensitive and brown.
This would serve many purposes:
1. shows organized golf's concern for the environment and water usage.
2. will introduce duffers to the alien concept of brown holes
3. the variety of holes during the course of a year can serve to educate groundskeepers etc. on
how best to adapt green to brown holes.
4. good PR to show the "Maher" types that golf isn't a soul-less aristocratic selfish endeavor...ok, maybe it isn't selfish.
My point is that if the tour shows one hole a week as 'brown", the idea will become more familiar to the average golfer and make it easier for the local courses to follow suit.
My God (another word you probably object to) tree huggers are numb.....you missed the whole point of my post. If you agree with the USGA position regarding water management as I do, what was the purpose of listing verbatim the musings of a whack job like Maher ?
Fast & firm links are the way to go......in fact when I convene the green committee meeting this spring, the first order of business will be selecting another tree to cut down.
I find myself a bemuse political agnostic attracted more towards intelligent arguments than political positions. They are all whack jobs but frankly I think Maher is smart and stimulating and highly worth listening to, as is George Will (who is pure brilliance). Contrast these two to Palin....
JC
I didn't miss the point of your post at all. You said, "Foist your vegan life-style in a more appropriate setting other than a golf blog, and for those that want to understand the true nature of man-made global warming.......just follow the money my friends." First of all, I'm not a vegan and enjoy eating meat as much as the next guy. I was just copying and pasting a segment from Bill Maher's TV show in regard to golf (and the eating farm animals part was attached with it). Regardless, Bill Maher is hilarious and brilliant, and he's right on the mark when he says "a golf course in Palm Springs consumes as much water per day as an American family uses in four years. Golf courses in America consume over 114 million gallons of water a year on grass that doesn't even get you high."
If you want to talk about quoting whack-jobs, look no further than the whack-job you directly quoted in Jesse's Ventura's position on global warming, "follow the money" -- especially in regard to water conservation on golf courses, which is laughable.
Do we all agree that the conservation and management of water as a precious resourse is very prudent and inportant ? It would appear that we do. If that's the case, then why the need to intertwine poliitics, religion and life-style choices with a USGA statement as a support mechanism ? I'd wager that the golf fans reading this blog don't give a s**t about your personal preferences and opinions outside the realm of golf.
FYI "Follow the money" is a Wall St. term, coined long before Jesse was born. If you really think that buffoon created the phrase, I suggest less time with the TV and more on the links.
Cheers !
Rod Serling is somewhere close by.
That's hilarious !
You're right, I should have been more specific that I was cutting down a tree in his honor.
Old trees that impede the original design, kill turf, and otherwise damage the health of putting surfaces via root encroachment / sucking nutriments......must die ! We like the "inside the ballpark" surfaces fast & firm with a crusty shade of green (controlled watering). Everything else can rely on mother nature, if it's bown & dead in certain years....so be it.