Golf is boring to watch. But for most players it is a social game. It’s like going to a bar with a few friends, but getting a little exercise.
And they don’t do a ton of leveling. Costs too much, and using the land the way it is, is what makes a course unique and interesting.
That said, it would be easy to find a sport that destroys more natural land. Ever see a football, baseball or soccer stadium… including all the parking. Then realize how many baseball fields their are in america (or soccer fields in other countries). They are several times the number of golf courses, and they all need more parking each than one golf course.
it’s really not in a large part of the country. In a desert sure. But even there they take measures like using recycled water and not pottable water and such. And of course agriculture makes every other water use pale in comparison.
The vast majority of golfers are regular people. Teachers, and people who do shift work have free time during the normal workday are some. Retires from all sorts of jobs are the rest of the majority. Most golf courses aren’t as fancy as you see on tv, and they don’t actually cost that much to play on. Wall street bailouts would never be caught dead on the average golf course.
I don’t know a single regular person who can afford to spend 9 hours on a weekend golfing. The only people I know who can afford that are people who inherited millions of dollars.
My buddy is a teacher in a poor district. He joins a golf league every year. Plays weekly at least when the weather is decent. My uncle plays weekly. Several guys on my softball team play. Not one of them has a million dollars. I play every few years or so. With no equipment meant it runs me $30 to $50 depending on where it is. Would be less if I owned clubs, or had a membership… haven’t played since the pandemic, so I am sure the price has increased, but plenty of people spend more on drinks for one weekend.
You don’t need to be a millionaire or need 9 hours to play golf. I used to have a game on an evening with my dad in the week, we were not at all wealthy.
Must be an incredible amazing coincidence that literally everyone I know who plays the game inherited piles of money. And all those greens being maintained and watered and cared for cost nothing so it’s super cheap to play.
Just because you know some millionaires who play golf doesn’t mean that everyone who plays golf is a millionaire. You can play for a couple of hours for cheap on a local 9 hole course.
yes in the desert they do. But most courses aren’t in the desert. Plenty used to only water the greens in the middle of the summer in the northeast where I grew up. People usualy picture only the high end golf courses. Most are not that. Some used to just shut down for a while if it got too dry rather than water.
I think his point about the damage environmental damage golf courses cause pale in comparison to other sports that need arenas.
Have you seen a golf course? Most of them aren’t made from scratch to fit some grand vision. They’re usually set up working with the environment rather than against it.
I’ve been fishing on an old golf course that’s no longer in use and it was mostly the same except the grass wasn’t cut as low. Great outdoors spot for families.
I thought he was just saying there’s way more stadiums than there are golf courses and that would be incorrect. I don’t have a problem with golf courses except for the excessive amount of water they seem to waste.
Golf is boring to watch. But for most players it is a social game. It’s like going to a bar with a few friends, but getting a little exercise. And they don’t do a ton of leveling. Costs too much, and using the land the way it is, is what makes a course unique and interesting.
That said, it would be easy to find a sport that destroys more natural land. Ever see a football, baseball or soccer stadium… including all the parking. Then realize how many baseball fields their are in america (or soccer fields in other countries). They are several times the number of golf courses, and they all need more parking each than one golf course.
More than leveling the ground, watering it is the main environmental issue
it’s really not in a large part of the country. In a desert sure. But even there they take measures like using recycled water and not pottable water and such. And of course agriculture makes every other water use pale in comparison.
Agriculture is food. We need food. We don’t really need a way for a bunch of Wall Street bailouts queens to have a social activity.
The vast majority of golfers are regular people. Teachers, and people who do shift work have free time during the normal workday are some. Retires from all sorts of jobs are the rest of the majority. Most golf courses aren’t as fancy as you see on tv, and they don’t actually cost that much to play on. Wall street bailouts would never be caught dead on the average golf course.
I don’t know a single regular person who can afford to spend 9 hours on a weekend golfing. The only people I know who can afford that are people who inherited millions of dollars.
My buddy is a teacher in a poor district. He joins a golf league every year. Plays weekly at least when the weather is decent. My uncle plays weekly. Several guys on my softball team play. Not one of them has a million dollars. I play every few years or so. With no equipment meant it runs me $30 to $50 depending on where it is. Would be less if I owned clubs, or had a membership… haven’t played since the pandemic, so I am sure the price has increased, but plenty of people spend more on drinks for one weekend.
Cool story bro
You don’t need to be a millionaire or need 9 hours to play golf. I used to have a game on an evening with my dad in the week, we were not at all wealthy.
Must be an incredible amazing coincidence that literally everyone I know who plays the game inherited piles of money. And all those greens being maintained and watered and cared for cost nothing so it’s super cheap to play.
Just because you know some millionaires who play golf doesn’t mean that everyone who plays golf is a millionaire. You can play for a couple of hours for cheap on a local 9 hole course.
sure we need food. But the way we water it is one of the more inefficient ways possible. But it is inexpensive. They could use almost 80% less water than they do. If you are worried about water use, start there. https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-sheets/irrigation-drip#:~:text=A properly installed drip system,subsurface%2C near the root zone.
Ok good. Start your own farm and do that. Golf isn’t suddenly good because some farmers suck
Golf courses use a shit ton of water, especially in areas where grass isn’t supposed to fuckin grow
yes in the desert they do. But most courses aren’t in the desert. Plenty used to only water the greens in the middle of the summer in the northeast where I grew up. People usualy picture only the high end golf courses. Most are not that. Some used to just shut down for a while if it got too dry rather than water.
There are 15,500 golf courses in America.
There are just over 900 stadiums in America.
I think his point about the damage environmental damage golf courses cause pale in comparison to other sports that need arenas.
Have you seen a golf course? Most of them aren’t made from scratch to fit some grand vision. They’re usually set up working with the environment rather than against it.
I’ve been fishing on an old golf course that’s no longer in use and it was mostly the same except the grass wasn’t cut as low. Great outdoors spot for families.
I thought he was just saying there’s way more stadiums than there are golf courses and that would be incorrect. I don’t have a problem with golf courses except for the excessive amount of water they seem to waste.
Size of Old Trafford Football Stadium and all parking nearby: 20.8 hectares.
Size of my local small golf club: 53.3 hectares.
And that’s one of the largest stadiums in the country, vs one of many, many golf courses.
Edit: For decimal place fuckup.
That is an absurdly massive golf club. Nowhere near average.
https://asgca.org/faq-how-much-land-do-i-need-to-build-a-golf-course/
Hang on, I’ve got my decimal point one over. For some reason I thought a hectare was 1,000m², and it’s 10,000m².
So 20.8 vs 53.3 hectares.
But a basic bog-standard golf club is still over twice the size of one of the largest football stadiums in the country.
I guess having absolutely no idea what the fuck you’re talking about has benefits.
Nice job adding nothing to the discussion. Go back to reddit, they miss you.
This entire thread is a blight on Lemmy. One of the seriously most shitty and disturbing things I’ve seen on the system.