With The Masters just around the corner, this article is definitely a MUST READ for all golfers. While watching The Masters at Augusta, it's all too easy to develop very unrealistic expectations of what a golf course "should" look like. That being said, as Vince Lombardi once said: "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."
The Secret Life of Golf Courses
by
Pat Jones | March, 2012
Shhh...don't tell...but there's more to them than meets the eye.
Sadly, in a few weeks, the world’s perception of golf
courses will once again be hopelessly warped by the annual telecast of
The Masters.
Yes, I said “warped.” Why?
The legendary
Augusta National Golf Club which hosts the famous old tournament is,
quite simply, perfect. The emerald green color is perfect. The sharp
edges of the white sand bunkers are perfect. The azaleas that frame the
best-known holes in golf are perfect. Even the pimento/cheese sandwiches
and mint juleps are perfect.
Perhaps too perfect.
I love Augusta – and I’ve been their many
times in my “regular” life as a golf writer – but the world’s most
famous golf course is by no means typical. The club spends millions
every year to implement an elaborate and sophisticated program to ensure
that the place is absolutely in peak condition for the week when the
world comes to watch.
The process reminds me a bit of the
carefully executed blooming plans of die-hard rose aficionados trying to
achieve the best possible color and consistency just in time for flower
show judging – only down at Augusta it’s done across 130 acres of
Georgia red clay that’s lovingly covered with a pampered blanket of
manicured turfgrass shaded by towering Palmettos and literally thousands
of hothouse annuals and hand-picked perennials.
Augusta at
Masters time is spectacular, sumptuous…and surreal in the truest sense
of the word. In a way, it’s like Brigadoon – the mythical Scottish
village of Broadway fame that can only be seen by outsiders once in
century. Essentially, it’s a once-a-year trick that CBS Sports and the
members of the club play on the world. So, judge ye not based on what
you’ll see on your HDTV screen come the second Sunday in April because
Augusta is, to put it bluntly, the least typical golf course on the
planet.
I ask you to forget what you think about the warped world
of Augusta and consider instead the “secret life” of the most typical
course in the world:
- It’s probably within 10 miles of your home. There are 15,500 courses in the U.S. – more locations than McDonalds – and they are everywhere from Denali National Park in Alaska to Death Valley in the Mojave Desert.
- Instead of being ultra-private, it’s far more likely to be open to anyone who wants to plunk down $35 or so to play 18 holes. Contrary to popular thought, three-quarters of all courses are public access.
- If you walk – and more and more people are choosing to do that now instead of riding those funny little carts – it’s a good 5-6 miles of exercise. Expect to burn about 1,500 calories when you hoof it for 18 holes instead of riding.
- It’s often the only major greenspace for miles – home to critters, birds, butterflies and a surprisingly diverse community of native plant species. The transitional areas between the open grassy space in the fairways and the trees and native grasses that often frame them are magnets for wildlife.
- The turfgrass there is more than just a big open space for a well-hit shot to land. The 70-150 acres of grass on a golf course is a bit of an ecological wonder. Large stands of turf filter pollutants from the water that moves across them and exchanges vast amounts of carbon monoxide for pure oxygen. Those billions of little grass plants also cool the atmosphere and create a permeable place for groundwater recharge.
- Much attention is paid to the greens – the fragile putting surfaces that are the focus of Joe Hacker’s love/hate relationship with the game. But most areas of the course are naturalized. Weed-free? Ha! Completely absent of bugs or pests? No way. You simply can’t contain Mother Nature, so most courses strive for a balance between the needs of t he game and the realities of managing a vast open space that invites invasive species.
- It’s typically managed by a professional course superintendent with a four-year degree in agronomy or another natural science who’s licensed to use pesticides and fertilizers and who likely got into the business because of a love of nature and the outdoors.
- The majority of typical golf courses are going to great lengths to reduce inputs like water and chemicals. Why? To reduce costs and lighten their environmental footprint.
- The typical course superintendent is amazingly passionate about what he or she does. They’d better be since the greenspaces they care for are enormous complex things that require incredible devotion to soils, plants, water and living things. I know thousands of them – quite literally – and they are largely people who are highly motivated by the same sense of concern I feel among my friends in gardening.
I’ve shared a bit about the secret life of most American courses. Now
I’ll share my personal little secret: Despite the fact that I write
about golf, golf courses and anything and everything to do with how they
are run, I stink at the actual game. I am what is politely called a
“high-handicapper.” If par is 72, I might break 100 on a good day. And
that’s probably with a couple of “mulligans” and a few kicks out of the
tall grass.
The point is that I’ve always loved golf courses –
these enormous, beautifully crafted, living, breathing playing fields –
more than the stupid game of golf. And, the less you care about how you
play, the more you’re likely to enjoy it. If you’re an occasional player
who sort of gave up on the game or someone who’s wanted to try it but
you’ve been scared of embarrassing yourself, repeat after me:
IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!
The
beauty of golf, like the joy of gardening, can easily become lost in
the futile quest for perfection. Let go of the score. Let go of your
fear of embarrassment. Let go of your preconceptions of what those
courses look like on TV.
Instead, just look around and drink in
the surroundings. Lose yourself in the quiet of an isolated hole. Enjoy
the inevitable delay while the doofus in front of you searches the woods
in vain for $2 Top Flite. Listen to the wind and the birds and the
gentle “thwack” of a faraway shot being struck. There is peace and
beauty around you when you ignore the stated purpose of being there and
just relax…and become aware of the secret life of golf courses.
