"Maybe they could start with preserving the cost of playing the game?
As courses get longer, turf heights get lower, greens get faster, bunkers get bigger, and conditions need to be more perfect the cost to provide the game to the public goes up regardless of the age of the course."
....JIM...isn't cost containment the domain of the membership? Since when has it been the USGA's responsibility?
Since they admitted clubs as members. Shouldn’t a club with members support its member clubs? Isn’t that why I pay dues as a USGA Member course?
"Or maybe they could preserve the time constraints of the game?
As courses get longer, rough gets longer, native areas are encroached, carts are mandated, and gps or yardage devices are used the time needed to play the game increases."
.....JIM...once again, that is the responsibility of the membership.
So every club should get a few tread mills as players are going to have to learn to walk 8500 yards in the time it took to walk 6500. Maybe each club can get an on staff opthamologist to speed up the rate in which they can find the balls they just hit out of their visual field. Maybe clubs can get faster carts that do more damage to the turf when they turn. Oh I know, how foolish of me, clubs should have 18 rangers on duty at all times to watch all the holes. That'll make the game more enjoyable and lower costs.
"Or maybe they could preserve the cost of building the courses the game is played on?
As courses need to be built in larger scale, with better drainage for water hungry turf strands, with less ability to be squeezed into viable settings, and gobble up more land the cost of construction goes up exponentially."
JIM...my experience has been it is the golfers that demand "water hungry" turf...and I would argue with you that golf courses "need to be built in larger scale".
Funny, I have a very nice firm and fast course with golden brown rough that is doing great in the market. In fact players here prefer it to green. Further the trend in private clubs is that if it costs more it must be better. I think this is just an excuse for financial exclusionism.
"Or maybe they could defend the game from those that would take advantage of it for purely financial purposes?
As golf as an industry continues to be whored out by real estate developers, equipment manufactures, optics companies, and operators bent on squeezing every dollar out of their customer rather than working in concert with the best interest of the game the popularity of the game decreases."
JIM...If we applied that logic (taking advantage for financial purposes) to EVERY profession, no one here could afford membership at those classic courses you want to preserve..."squeezing every dollar" from their choosen profession allowed early industrialists and developers to build the great courses of the golden age....I did not see them "working in concert with the best interest of the game"....
So I should raise my rate to $85 a round next summer? Historically I don’t think the robber barons are very well respected in history. I've never met a greedy bastard who was much of a man. Most of them die alone in their pile of money. I'd much rather be associated with those that want a standard of life rather than a standard of living. I don’t particularly care about the classic course, especially that private ones. When push comes to shove they’ll just move to new land and build new, leaving a residential development in their wake.
Turf growers DO NEED the USGA's help in turf development. Ask your local Super if the regional USGA agronomist was important this past summer when the mid west and east was under a drought...
You know, when I paid my supers cell bill this summer I couldn’t help but notice how many people called him for advice. I believe the USGA also called him to ask him the methods to be used in Michigan based on his experience with various regions and conditions. I went to many a lunch where chem and fert vendors asked his advice. Don’t remember the USGA being to well touted in those meetings either. Seed sellers can do their own development, as for management I'll take the GCSAA membership and the MSU & PSU turf schools over the USGA anyday.
As I look back on the people I respect most in my life, I don’t recall any of them ever telling me to compromise and do the easy thing. In fact my grandfathers both told me that no matter what happens in life, I should do the right thing no matter how difficult. Someday I'm going to have to answer to them and probably someone a little bigger too. I'll stick with the right thing you can have the profitable compromise.