Wait until you hear about the laws in place that guarantee them access to water their fields no matter the drought. Nobody has heard of an unkempt golf course.
Las Vegas has something like 70 golf courses wasting inordinate amounts of water. Of course most houses also have outside private swimming pools too.
Vegas actually is a poor example, they have excellent water management policy even in spite of what is typically considered wasteful. Being so far down the Colorado River Basin kinda made being experts on the subject a necessity.
Of course it has excellent water management because otherwise they’d run out. Doesn’t mean that everyone having pools and so many golf courses is anyway defensible, or doesn’t put insane stress on the supply.
I don’t think they’re saying golf courses in the desert are defensible. I think they’re saying that Nevada does better water conservation job than other nearby states (I believe Utah is the worst per capita) and has not nearly as much impact on the colorado river, so there’s probably bigger fish to go after in terms of saving water than Las Vegas. When you get down to it like >80% of the water use out west is agriculture. If you’re going to make significant savings you have to tackle agriculture practices. Not that you shouldn’t clamp down on the golf courses too (I totally think they should, just deal with the artificial turf golfers if you want to golf in the middle of an arid desert and go golf in the scottish highlands if you want real grass), it just probably wouldn’t help all that much in the grand scheme of things even if golf courses didn’t exist at all. Surprisingly the best thing to do to conserve water would be to reduce meat consumption, most of what’s grown is for livestock feed not human consumption.
The original game as invented by bored semi-drunk Scots was, I’m sure, a good laugh several hundred years ago with wee sticks and a random round thing.
The modern game and all its hideous capitalist/ classist cultural connotations is fucked.
I have it on good authority that golf was in fact invented by Bandrobas Took during the Battle of Greenfields.
🙄 modern home is just as accessible as any sport that requires gear eg hockey. Even more so. You folks just looking for enemies.
Cope harder
Tell me that you’re poor without telling me that you’re poor.
Tell me you’re an asshole without telling me you’re an asshole.
Tell me you’re American without telling me you’re American.
Hating poor people is as American as you can get. You should fit right in.
For someone who spends so much time talking about growing up in poverty, this is a surprisingly callous thing to say.
Poverty sucks. Don’t be poor.
Depression sucks. Don’t be depressed.
Does that work too?
Ofc.
Two golf courses nearby have closed down and are being rehabilitated by the National Park that claimed the land or however they got it. IIRC one of them was family-owned for four generations, but the last owner was in his mid-twenties and got in way over his head, and committed suicide on one of the greens.
Sucks about the circumstances, but otherwise I love to see it
The only benefit to society I can see for golf is that it provides a reliable source of consistent standardized ammunition for my golf ball cannon.
There’s other sports that are just as bad. the NFL is terrible for the environment and for the players’ neurology.
Why do they helmet bump so much when they celebrate a good play?!?
Like, you just went helmet to helmet with someone, got helped off the field, and teammates congratulate you with more helmet bonks?
I just don’t understand the need for so many courses, I played golf as a kid on the same one for 10 years, the local environment allowed it to maintain itself for the most part.
So… I actually really like golf. I think it’s fun. Haven’t played in over a decade, but I look back on my memories playing pretty fondly.
That said, I have zero issue recovering a lot of that lost land and water usage to put them to better use.
I’d be very interested to see a version of golf that is less ecologically destructive and less water intensive.
Frisbee golf is where it’s at
The golf course near me has spent the last month about a foot underwater.
I have never been so smug. I hope it’s ruined.
It sucks because it’s such a big sport here in Scotland, it’s strange that people use the defense other things are worse to make it seem like it’s not a problem. It’s mainly stupid since there are plenty of other spots that have the similar qualities, without the masses of land lost and wasted water.
I also think it’s funny just how much it costs to go golfing, some courses here in Scotland have a membership system with like silver, gold and platinum.
It feels like a very elitist way to price a sport, and no I would rather not spend a months wage per year to hit a ball down a field for a year, mini golf is much cheaper, more enjoyable and environment friendly, and I’ll be just as shit as I would be at golf.
Scotland is one of the few places where golf can actually be somewhat environmentally ok. Like, grass actually grows there without you having to do crazy stuff to it.
I thought cricket was the most boring sport in existence.
HOW BAD CAN I POSSIBLY BEEEEEEEE???
Not just that, but I found a few golf courses in my city where natural habitats used to be. These place could have easily been changed into nature parks for the local residents to go wind down a bit, but noooOOOooo. Some rich assholes had to buy the land and destroy the ecosystem so they could whack a ball around some fucking grass into a little hole.
Would there be a difference to the sport if a part of the land was just left natural? I expect it would make the sport more interesting, atleast to the spectators.
It was invented in Scotland. Where there’s grass everywhere and almost no trees. Why not just play in natural landscapes that are suited for the game?
every golf course could be a lovely botanical garden/park or arboretum, with little paths every which way and carefully crafted scenery to make you feel like you’re inside a disney movie
AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON EACH SIDE. Seattle estimated they could solve the housing crisis by closing a handful of their muni courses (leaving multiple municipal and a dozen private courses in the area) and building medium density housing there. Solving a critical need by getting rid of a few locations for a dying sport:
https://www.theurbanist.org/2019/06/12/unlike-seattle-golf-really-is-dying/
It’s a waste of space otherwise.
You see this?
I used to hike along the coast there quite regularly but someone decided it was much better to turn the whole thing into a gulf course and to illegally block access to locals.
Edit: Of course they also chose the driest part of the island.
Maybe they should be on the lookout for people pouring cement into the golf holes.
Where is this? California has strict regulations about the actual beach access. So e.g. Pebble Beach is in one of the most beautiful locations in all of Northern California, ridiculously expensive and nearly impossible to play as a mortal, but you can still go drive around 17 mile drive through the course and walk along the coastal trails for free.
It’s in st Lucia in the Caribbean.
There is regulations for beach access too here where all the coastline need to be accessible to the public.
So far with this particular resort they are doing everything they can to discourage people from coming in and showed a strong disdain for the local community.
Most of the golf courses near me are pretty much this - densely forested areas with meticulously landscaped little gardens, which happens to have some holes built in.
A lawn is not a garden.
Correct. I’m not talking about lawns.
Golf courses are lawns.
So you just didn’t read my first comment in this thread then
Please post a picture of this golf course with no lawns
Oh I get it now, your reading comprehension is just poor.
IMHO sport is a misnomer. “Game” seems more fitting to me.
I’m always interested in this take. By definition,.it’s clearly a sport.
How do you define sport and how does it not meet the definition? It’s a game of physical skill, mental concentration, and competition.
I have always viewed it as a sport involves and active defensive player and an overall greater level of physical movement
Motorsports have no defensive player and do not involve much physical movement (unless you count the car’s movement).
Giving a cat a bath involves a defensive player (the cat) and significant physical movement (depends on the cat’s mood).
