It opened in 1931 and underwent a major renovation in 1997. Apparently, the water usage is sustainable (see below), but it still doesn’t excuse the fact, in my mind, that continuing to support the upkeep of a green-ass golf course at the edge of Death Valley shows how out-of-whack its patrons are with the changing climate.
“In an area as hot and dry as Death Valley, balancing water usage with conservation requires significant planning. Furnace Creek and its namesake resort exist in their location because natural spring water flows from nearby mountain ranges to create an oasis. By routing the water from one point to others, the resort’s goal is to use the same molecules of water for several purposes. The spring-fed water is first used at the Inn to irrigate gardens and supply the swimming pool which was designed with a flow-through system that minimizes chemical use. That water then continues downhill to the Ranch where it fills the ponds on the golf course, providing habitat for local and migratory wildlife. The water in the ponds then irrigates the golf course.” - How Xanterra’s Furnace Creek Resort is Sustainable, greenlodgingnews.com
Golf is actually a sport that should be perfectly playable without grass. Like use different grades of rocks.
I’ve never really understood why golf courses always needs to look the same. Wouldn’t they be more exciting if they reflected the local ecology. I’d think it would be more interesting to play a desert course, a swamp course, beach course, forest course, bog course, etc. Then again, golf isn’t exactly known for being an adventurous sport.
This is basically disc golf.
Take an existing park/ site/ property / walking trail / hiking trail, and slap some baskets and a few tees (concrete optional in a ~3’x5’ square for the ‘tee’, but a marked off piece of dirt is also acceptable)
Course is in a forest? Better dodge the trees! The course near me encircles soccer fields and a walking path, another one near me follows along a creek.
There are courses that go under power lines and some that are nested away in between buildings.
Snow golf.
Snolf.
Bringer of avalanches.
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At this point it’s probably more because grass and dirt is the safest surface for all the old fudds that make up most of the playerbase to fall down on.
I thought it would be interesting to have a negative space golf course, where the entire thing is hard packed sand, except for the rough which is slightly looser sand, and instead of sand traps you have Grass traps, where it’s just a small area with uncut 6-12" tall grass that you need to shoot out of.
You should find a way to always have angry turkeys in the grass traps, kinda like the alligators.
Ooh… and you could do a hole like that crazy island one from Tin Cup, but instead of an island, make a drunk on a jet ski dragging an inter tube behind it.
Even cooler would be playing golf without the clubs and just going for a walk instead like a non-psychopath.
Nope.
Or a disc golf course. I have played golf before and, yes, it is nice to get out into nature, and yes a squarely-hit golf ball feels nice. But it’s no more satisfying a feeling than bowling a strike or spiking a volleyball. There are so many ways to get the feelgoods that don’t require flagrant water waste the way golf courses do.
But isn’t disc golf often played by people with a functional frontal cortex?