Anti-Golf

[Tom MacWood]

In 1914 Bernard Darwin wrote this editorial in The Times in response to a vocal and growing anti-golf movement. This editorial sparked a wave of letters to the editor on both sides of the debate. Every day or two I will try to post some of those letters. The letter debate went on for weeks not unlike some of the debates on this site.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom:

Great find.

We could really use someone today who could write like Darwin.

[Mac Plumart]

Wow!!!  That is a great read.  Again, thanks for sharing!!

[Jim_Kennedy]

TMac,
Great stuff.

Kelly,
It's possible that in his closing remarks he was referring back to an earlier theme, one that started at line 27, where he says "No sport yet has been invented that eats so insidiously into the day's routine......"
In the next 23 or 24 lines he goes on to describe the all-consuming progression, much like a worsening disease, that all golfers have  felt at one time or another, and one that we have all recovered from (although the disease lingers  ).   

[Mike_Young]

It would be interesting to know what he was thinking when he used the word disease, at the end. What would golf or the golfer have to become in order for Darwin to describe it as a disease. Whatever the definition it would probably be one of the best disesases with which you could hope to be afflicted. I guess I shouldn't divorce his statement from the first part, as long as it remains a game. It would be interesting to know more about that statement.

Kelly,
I think he may have seen some of what we see now when he speaks of disease.
I have many times seen guys that become addicted to the game like they would alcohol and it totally consumes them....over family and job.  We were discussing recently after being at one of our state events of how so many of the competitors really did nothing but golf....and if you look most have the ability not to work...and some that need to work ignore it in order to pla in these golf tournaments...and as they become older you can be at the same tournaments and watch the same guys with the same handicaps think they will find the secret that day.....so often now guys get trapped with golf and next thing they know it's like beng a class A baseball player and no where to go....it's sad....I can name acquaintances who actually have the disease of golf and will over ride family, job or anything else for it.....

[Jeff_Brauer]

I won't ask if ove 6000 posts on gca.com constitutes a disease.  Actually, I am pretty sure I know the answer....

TMac,  that was a nice read and thanks for sharing.  I would love to see some of the most striden anti-golf responses if you post them later. I gather the closest analogy today of the response would be the environmentalists in Asia trying to stop golf altogether?

[Jim_Kennedy]

http://www.bvihcg.com/images/beef/golf_environment.pdf

Maybe they(Asia) have a point.

[Tom_Doak]

Jim:

Or maybe they don't.  Some golf courses should qualify as "destruction of natural landscapes," but others certainly should not.  And those figures on the amounts of chemicals applied to golf courses are 10x higher than other figures I've seen printed ... they seem out of scale to me.

I had dinner a couple of weeks ago with a couple of guys who run the Golf Environment Organization, a European group based in Scotland.  They have fairly impeccable environmental credentials, including the backing of the WWF, and they also love golf.  They're probably our best hope for getting these issues into perspective, and I look forward to working with them on it.

[RJ_Daley]

.. a churlish form of ascotism...

I couldn't find that word in my dictionary.  But, I think I know it when I see it.  It is the same thing as posting day after day, year after year, on GCA.com, while sitting in your smoking jacket w/ascot an pipe, or tobacco product fixed in one's gob. 

And, did everyone catch the observation of the habitual "two hour round"?  They had to play almost exclusively, match play. One of the issues in the modern era is the bemoaned 4.5+ hor round.  But, the problem is how and how much we pay for golf.  Memebers are more likely to play match play when they do not pay per round and play nassau's and such more often, where they just pick up their ball when beaten and move on to the next hole.  But, at these prices per round at fee courses, or playing for strokes for leagues, or just pencil and card mentality, most folks will play out every hole to get their money's worth, it seems to me (not that I blame them). 

The article is a great look at man confronting the oncoming of a more leisurely age where time was available from less work, which is more amplified as time goes on.  At least back then, golf was even more of a vigorous outdoor activity, to be relished by the more active people, who weren't overwhelmed by technology of carts, golf aids and all the leisurely accoutraments of the new era.  Now, golf has evolved to even less vigorous, less walking and healthy outdoor activity, and even more a 'disease' of an even more idle people.  The game still has those characteristics that draw one in, but the value as a game/sport to be relished for its vigorous aspects of two hour rounds, and excerise outdoors is waning with every cart ride and lemon scented towel offered by a 'playing assistant". 

[Charlie Goerges]

RJ, the word was asceticism, that's why you couldn't find it.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tom,
How much more prevalent to diseases and pests are grasses that live in the high heat/ high humidity/ monsoon conditions of places like Malaysia, or Vietnam, or Thailand? It doesn't seem that unlikely to me that 10x more chemicals are in use, especially where there is less regulation and more easily (or cheaply) corrupted officials that will look the other way.

There are quite a few stories, from organizations like the Vietnamese News Agency and others, that attest to the problems development has brought upon farmers, how much land gets lost to them, water supplies that have been diminished, how many people depended on the lost land/water for survival, etc..

I'm not anti- development, but it's too easy to find these articles and stories about the problems of development, including golf development, in Asia and elsewhere. It always seems to be affecting the poorest of people, the ones with the smallest voices.

I see that GEO has a very limited presence in Asia vs. Europe. What is that marker at their site, China? Seems like there is a need for at least 10x the number of companies like GEO on the Asian continent.

 

[Jim_Kennedy]

So you and Jeff don't think I'm just yankin' your chains:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/world/asia/20golf.html?_r=1
http://nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=84083&z=42
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0716/p11s01-coop.html
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/ttcd/TA-06.doc

I could add several more but I don't think it's necessary . If even half of what's been written is true about conditions in these countries, then I think it requires finding out what will happen to people, their future health, their future livelihoods, their fragile environments and their culture before working in that environment. 


One other article surprised me. I read that 376 pounds of nutrients (154 pounds of Nitrogen/65 pounds of phosphate/157 pounds of potash) were used on each and every acre of golf course grass per year, in the United States, for a grand total of 236,911 tons per year.
 http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/61427-Recent-GCSAA-research-examines-nutrient-use-golf-courses

[Dale Jackson]

Tom, thanks for posting this, I was searching for an introduction to the boom in golf in the very early 1900s and the first few lines are perfect for my purposes.  Anytime I can use a Bernard Darwin quote is a good thing.

[Tom MacWood]

Six days after the editorial the first letter to the editor was printed.

[Tom MacWood]

...and the following day two more letters.

[Tom MacWood]

...and the next day two more anti-golf letters.

[Tom MacWood]

More of the same the next day including another letter from Mr. Anti-Golf, and the first letter defending the game.

[Tom MacWood]

The follow day Darwin re-enters the fray.

[Tom MacWood]

...every day the letters keep coming, good and bad, mostly bad. I'm beginning to wonder if Darwin didn't write some of these letters himself.