When Golf Courses Go Wild
November 1, 2024 8:24 AM   Subscribe

 
I love the game of golf and do not enjoy the culture of golf. Golf like most things needs to get with the program regarding the environment or it should be burned to the ground. It won’t of course because the worst people lead the game.

I hadn’t thought about but I love that rewilded courses are easily made accessible because, especially in North America people got rid of the best part of the thing, (walking in “nature”) for the comfort and ease of a golf cart.
posted by Uncle at 9:02 AM on November 1 [3 favorites]


Un-spoiling a good walk
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:37 AM on November 1 [9 favorites]


They’re gonna the way to achieving the grand goal, to make the golf course a public sex forest
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:49 AM on November 1 [10 favorites]


I have PTSD from the whole sAvE tHe MeAdOwS business here in Philly where the plan to expand FDR park, half of which had previously been a poorly maintained golf course, has been thrown into disarray by a bunch of people who would rather it remain an overgrown ex-golf course than be turned into a world-class park with facilities that would be of use to everyone. But generally I think the world could use fewer golf courses, particularly in the middle of municipal parks.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:56 AM on November 1 [1 favorite]


I used to live right behind this one.
posted by clavdivs at 10:30 AM on November 1


public sex forest

I saw them open for Cradle of Filth back in the day
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:45 AM on November 1 [12 favorites]


My municipal golf course is interspersed with a lot of wild areas, and includes public nature trails. It's also used for public recreation (walking, jogging, snowshoeing, sledding) outside of the golfing season and is a really nice space to see wildlife. I'm grateful for it.
posted by metasarah at 10:59 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]


My daughter's (potentially becoming her ex-high school sweetheart, much drama from that), bought a failed golf course, and turned it into what I think is a failing disc golf course. I have to think disc golf is less terrible than golf courses, but haven't done the research.

And my FIL has been a golfer for a long time. And he is a great dude.

Any my neighborhood was built on what was a golf course way back in the 50s. Good land. Golf courses are just so wasteful. All those courses down in Arizona? How much water are they sucking up, and how much pesticides/herbicides are entering the system...?
posted by Windopaene at 11:31 AM on November 1 [1 favorite]


I love these transformations. Where I live golf courses can be classed as agricultural activity to allow them to be built on reserved agricultural land and it's always great to actually see them revert.

When the tiny 6 hole municipal golf course in my city failed it became a little, accessible (because flat paved paths), urban wildlife refuge (helped greatly because it's on a island and dogs are prohibited).

Despite heavy lobbying to keep it as is by the photography folks they turned it into a disc golf course whacking down a bunch of vegetation in the process. At least it didn't become baseball fields.

The same island had its encircling road closed to cars during the pandemic and it was glorious. Since reversed because can't have people walking to their ball fields because it might take ten minutes.
posted by Mitheral at 11:34 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]


A crummy par-3 club course near us got turned into a park with, among other things, a super great cross-country course for high school runners. There's lots of parking, it's gloriously free of stones and roots to wrench ankles, and there's great views for the parents to watch.

Now someone says the buildings are too expensive to overhaul so it should be developed as senior housing. Not sure I love the idea: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/changing-course-from-a-country-club-to-a-park-to-potential-future-uses-highland-propertys/article_b72187e6-6a0d-11ef-9aab-2b9649a154d0.html
posted by wenestvedt at 1:00 PM on November 1


City of Atlanta's public golf course at Candler Park was the site of a stream restoration project in the early 2000s, intended to daylight, remeander, and revegetate the stream. Beavers moved in almost immediately after the restoration was completed and it's now a favorite bird watching site for many neighbors. We go there to take water quality samples, monitor the beneficial effects of the beavers, and admire the gorgeous wetlands, and golfers often stop to show me pictures and videos they've taken of the beavers. The park is jointly managed by the city, a golf course management company, and a non-profit conservancy, and everyone is on board with the beavers being there and recognizes the water quality benefits they are providing (and mitigating the impacts of the golf course care).

As the article notes, there are different kinds of golf courses in the world, and this one is definitely one of the okay ones. It was the first integrated golf course in Georgia, and still draws a diverse crowd, reflecting the city. I also love seeing teenagers there playing golf just walking along carrying a driver and a putter. It seems so damn different from the toxic (metaphorically and literally) country clubs of the burbs.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:52 PM on November 1 [1 favorite]


Golf courses would be a lot less obnoxious if they ruling class twerps would just let us just walk across them

During the pandemic, we got so tired of all that wasted space, all while normal people were crammed into the 20 ft wide part of the public parks doing actual exercise, actual walking and drawing and socializing.....all that wasted space is just damn sinful.

During the Pandemic we just ignored the dirty looks from the athleisure set in their little carts, and took walks over the greens. I wish there could be a social movement to reclaim these wasted spaces, and plant them with gardens, forests, anything but dead turf

Critical Stroll?
posted by eustatic at 8:50 PM on November 1 [3 favorites]


Nice that it's happening to public courses but frankly, I'd like to see country clubs turned into public wildlife refuges. We could nationalize all the companies of the members then set them free on their former country club as wild life refugees.
Not that I have issues around wealthy robber barons or anything.
posted by evilDoug at 9:28 PM on November 1 [2 favorites]


People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

Hunting clubs and golf courses, man. Purpose built price fixing spaces.
posted by eustatic at 10:12 PM on November 1 [1 favorite]


During the Pandemic we just ignored the dirty looks from the athleisure set in their little carts, and took walks over the greens

If you were literally walking on their greens the response would have been a lot more violent and physically painful (to you) than just some dirty looks.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 11:11 AM on November 3


During the pandemic, we got so tired of all that wasted space, all while normal people were crammed into the 20 ft wide part of the public parks doing actual exercise, actual walking and drawing and socializing.....all that wasted space is just damn sinful.

There was a bracket on Twitter for the best public parks a couple of years ago and as I took a look at the contenders it started to dawn on me that a very large number of public parks are 25-50% golf course. It is kind of outrageous.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:33 PM on November 3


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