Rich Man’s Game vs Poor Man’s World

                                        Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia 

                                                Pebble Beach Golf Club, California

Rich Man’s Game vs Poor Man’s World by Satvik Gupta

( The contents of this blog belong to my grandson, Satvik Gupta )

Last summer I had the privilege of going on a vacation to California, specifically visiting San Francisco and going on the scenic highway 1. While on highway 1, my family stopped by to take a detour to Monterey where we went on the iconic 17 mile drive. Both my father and I have played golf for many years, so we were extremely excited to see the famous Pebble Beach Golf Club, located near mile 15. When we got to the golf course, we stepped onto the first tee because nobody was playing at the time and took it all in. Majestic green fairways, the grainy bunkers, and tons of trees. A couple of  weeks later when reviewing the photos we had taken, my mother explained that golf courses were outside the cities and surrounded by trees, but were actually significantly harmful to the natural environment. Initially, I did not believe her because golf courses were in nature and there was always wildlife roaming around . She agreed that golf courses did have some positive effects but continued to explain the negative effects. From that conversation, I started to understand the relationship between golf courses and the natural environment. Even though golf courses are in nature, they are not very natural and seem to harm the environment more than they help it. Just a couple weeks ago, the Masters, a major golf tournament, was played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Augusta has an extremely prestigious reputation; the course is known for having near perfect conditions for a golf course. In the golf world, most if not all golf courses want perfect conditions, known as having the Augusta National syndrome. But to satisfy this desire, copious amounts of chemicals and water need to be used. According to Katharine Gammon, just in America, some 2.08 billion gallons of water are used every day just to water golf courses. Billions of gallons being lost every day doesn’t seem intelligent when places like Las Vegas and most of California face droughts and have water scarcity problems. On top of droughts, California alone has over 1000 golf courses and each course (on average) uses 130,000 gallons of water every day, so there is a massive amount of water used just for keeping grass green. Gammon also explains that if golf courses reduced water use by 25% in just California, one million bathtubs could be filled. This is a great example of how water could also be used to help people directly instead of keeping grass green. The water could also be used to assist other countries facing water crises, like Lesotho or Uganda. While millions of children and women walk for hours every day to collect dirty water in developing countries, America is using over two billion gallons every single day for sustaining golf courses. This inequality reflects back to why golf has traditionally been called “the rich man’s game.” In America and other developed countries, golf courses have been created for leisure and recreation because the countries have the resources to spend, while developing countries rarely have golf courses because they need to conserve their resources. But to fully satisfy the Augusta National syndrome, golf courses also need many chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and fertilizer. Pesticides are substances created and distributed meant to control pest populations. Similarly, herbicides are meant for controlling plants, insecticides are meant for controlling insects, and fungicides are meant for controlling fungi and bacteria. Finally, fertilizer is a substance that gives plants or soil nutrients. According to author Carol Leonetti from The Environmental Magazine, “the average golf course dumps regular treatments of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizer--more per square foot than the average farm.” Even in small amounts, these chemicals can be very harmful, but when a golf course (on average) uses even more of these chemicals than a farm, there is a huge issue; all of these chemicals can contaminate groundwater, kill animals and disrupt the local food chain, and change nutrient levels of soil. Groundwater contamination occurs when chemicals such as pesticides enter groundwater, and mainly happens through leaching, a process in which chemicals travel to foods or beverages. This concept is further explained by Samantha Jakuboski,  who founded the Green Science blog: “Many people depend on groundwater for their drinking supply, yet if that water has pesticides in it, it is unsanitary and harmful for people to drink.” Jakuboski emphasizes that people depend on groundwater, but so do animals who drink from freshwater streams and lakes. Due to pesticides killing animals and disrupting the local food chain, some species can go extinct, become endangered, or be forced to migrate thereby causing a loss of biodiversity. All of these effects relate to each other, and even one effect happening can cause the other effects to happen. For example, if a species becomes endangered, some of their predators’ population will decrease and some will be forced to migrate because there’s a lack of prey (food for predators) in the ecosystem. Finally, if nutrient levels change, certain crops may not be able to grow which directly affects the food supply of many species, once again altering the population of these species, causing imbalances in the local ecosystem. One way that nutrient levels can change is through volatilization, a process that happens when “a pesticide turns into a gas or vapor after it has been sprayed, allowing it to travel through the air and spread to different pieces of land” (Jakuboski). If pesticides spread through air, they can easily find soil and fields changing the nutrient levels in them. While it is not the most obvious, many people and animals’ food supply and water sources can be disrupted through the processes of leaching and volatilization. Even though golf courses use large amounts of chemicals and water, they still benefit the natural environment by protecting biodiversity and providing wildlife sanctuaries. Since the property on a course is being used for golf, the land cannot be urbanized and used for other constructions. Not only does this protect the biodiversity within the area, but it protects local plants and local species by continually providing a habitat. Lauren Sewell,  expands on protecting biodiversity by explaining that “Researchers are finding that golf course land can actually mimic naturally occurring habitats.” By mimicking naturally occurring habitats, local species can live peacefully without threats to biodiversity. Sewell’s point also reiterates the fact that golf courses provide sanctuaries because all the trees, natural bodies of water, and interacting ecosystems on the golf course work to allow animals to live like it’s their natural habitats. These sanctuaries help land animals, amphibians, and birds, with one bird sanctuary being Pinehurst Golf Club, where endangered red cockaded woodpeckers have been living and recovering from endangerment (Sewell 335). I believe that even though golf courses directly negatively impact the environment, courses directly positively impact people. I have been playing golf since I was 9, and the game has been a huge part of my life. I am confident that my experiences are similar to those of 25+ million who play golf around the world. Golf courses allow for a multitude of individual benefits, including family bonding time, skill development, improving mental and physical health, and teaching life lessons to players. Because of golf courses, I am able to bond with my family and friends because I spend 4 hours every round talking to them and enjoying their company. I am able to work on my golf skills over time, set goals for myself, and challenge myself to be better. I get to be outside improving my physical health by walking and carrying my clubs on my back. I get to improve my mental health by also walking and being in nature to see wildlife. Currently with Covid, golf has become especially beneficial because golfers can safely play and improve their mental health. I also learn life lessons, like learning how to behave in a group (etiquette), how to leave areas better than I find them (repairing divots and cleaning bunkers), how to have respect for others and my surrounding environment, and how to be thankful for what I have. Many golfers appreciate all these individual benefits. Golf courses also have general benefits that help many people, like attracting real estate and creating jobs. With all these benefits, I want to emphasize that even though golf courses negatively affect the environment, they also directly positively affect people. Although golf courses protect biodiversity and provide wildlife sanctuary, they have high pesticide and water usage. Golf courses being constructed and existing negatively impact the environment, but on a grander scale, we are destroying our Earth. Our standard of living in America is not sustainable. We must make a change, and it can start with the beginning of using more sustainable practices to maintain our golf courses. Hopefully in the future, golf courses will focus on conservation of resources and won’t develop the Augusta National syndrome.

                                            Pinehurst Golf Club

Works Cited 

Gammon, Katharine. “In Face Of Drought, Golf Tries to Reduce Water Use.” insidescience.org, 18 June 2015, https://insidescience.org/news/face-drought-golf-tries-reduce-water-use

 Jakuboski, Samantha. “The Dangers of Pesticides.” nature.com, 25 July 2011, https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/green-science/the_dangers_of_pesticides/#:~:text= Pesticides%20are%20stored%20in%20your,but%20surely%20poison%20the%20body.&t ext=After%20countless%20studies%2C%20pesticides%20have,system%2C%20and%20t he%20endocrine%20syst.

Leonetti, Carol. “Green Golf.” E: The Environmental Magazine, vol. 6, no. 3, May 1995, p. 22. 

Sewell, Lauren. “Golf Course Land Positive Effects on the Environment.” Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 329-356. Seattle University School of Law, https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=sjel#: ~:text=Environmentalists%20argue%20that%20golf%20course,destroying%20habitats% 20for%20wildlife%20species.