I knew I was opening a hornet's nest when I mentioned restricting play a bit on the Yale course for non-university people. I may well be wrong that overplay on the course has hurt conditioning. But my observation was the last time I played that the course was in pitiful overall shape. I don't mean just the grass--but also the condition of the bunkers, the quality of the greens, etc. But I'm comparing it to many years ago--not the last few years only.
Certainly, I understand that non-Yale people like a low fee to play a great course, but I was struck by the 35,000 rounds number on a course only playable for a part of the year. I'm not surprised that people would object to my observation. Maybe someone without an axe to grind could tell me I'm wrong on the 35,000 rounds number.
In any case, I think we can all agree that the Yale course has suffered with the politics of Yale--and with the belief that a golf course is unimportant compared to the academic departments. As someone observed, the Yale endowment is not going for athletic facilities. Sad but true.
Most importantly, to lose to Dartmouth--and then Harvard today--in basketball and miss the NCAA tournament shows that Yale has a lot to do to restore its athletic excellence, not only its golf course!