The Case Against Golf Courses
Fun fact: the United States has more golf courses than McDonald’s locations
My vendetta against golf courses started after listening to a podcast episode called “A Good Walk Spoiled.” The episode, one of Malcolm Gladwell’s well-researched eviscerations, was about golf and the compelling argument against golf courses. The argument appealed to my capitalist-questioning tendencies and desire for more access to publicly-available park lands.
In short, Gladwell’s thesis relies on a few main points:
Golf courses use an exorbitant amount of natural resources to maintain their green grass and sand traps. The typical golf course is roughly 200 acres and requires regular watering, pesticide treatment, extensive landscaping, mowing, and sand replacement. For context, in 2020 there were 16,100 registered golf courses in the U.S.
Golf courses are a waste of perfectly good space. The average golf course can handle 72 golfers at one time which is one golfer per 120,833 square feet. There is no other sport that requires that kind of space to person ratio.
Golf courses are mainly utilized by the wealthy. The average CEO plays 15 rounds of golf a year. A round of golf is about 4.5 hours, so if you play 15 times a year, that's more than 68 hours on the course, the equivalent of a week and a half of work. And Gladwell’s best statistic is that the more golf a CEO plays, the worse their firm does. Case in point: Donald J. Trump. Oh and did I mention that 77% of golfers are men?
Country clubs (the home of golf courses) are notorious for paying far less in taxes than they should. Gladwell gives the example of the Los Angeles Country Club. Their property is worth roughly $9 billion and yet they only paid roughly $200,000 in taxes in 2017. A property of that size should be paying $90 million a year, at least.
I am not advocating for the elimination of golf as a sport. I know people get great joy from it. But you have to at least acknowledge the ridiculous and, in my opinion, reckless use of land.
There is a giant golf course near my apartment in Arlington. Ryan and I drive by it whenever we go to Alexandria. If you look at the green open space in Arlington on a map, you quickly notice how the Army Navy country club takes up a large swath of that open space. Arlington has lots of parks and trails, but imagine if that 500 acres turned into a giant public park with trails, races, mountain biking, playgrounds, and dog parks.
Membership details are not available on their site, but Ryan turned to the AI search tool Perplexity and found the numbers. Drumroll please…
Standard Golf Membership
Initiation fee: $60,000
Annual dues: $10,000
WHAT?!?! He told me to guess, and I was $59,000 and $9,500 off, respectively.
Army Navy Country Club has no public access days or hours, like some other private clubs. And I will just note here that not a single promotional photo on their website or pamphlet shows a non-white person.
To appease my golf fans (don’t want to lose readers during this exposé), I must add a few counterpoints:
There are public golf courses. In fact, only 25% of all golf courses are private. Public golf courses aren’t necessarily inclusive and inexpensive, but they are generally better than private courses.
Many public golf courses use recycled water to maintain their grounds. Some even provide ample habitat for monarch butterflies.
Some golf courses allow people to walk the cart path in the winter, which is nice, I guess?
That’s all I’ve got honestly. I don’t think there is a compelling argument for creating more golf courses in the U.S. We have more than enough as is.
A small number of golf courses have been bought by land trusts and conservation groups and turned into nature preserves, parks, and wetlands. Many golf courses are bordered by public green space on either side and a golf course is the one thing standing between connecting the two. That was the case in San Geronimo, CA where a local land trust bought up a golf course and was able to create a much larger park for locals.
The rewilding of golf courses is a long, arduous, and expensive process. But many courses-turned-parks have seen impressive conservation wins and increased biodiversity of plants and expanded animal activity.
If I had a magic wand, I would turn every golf course into a nature preserve or public park. But I understand that people love golf and there may be good reasons to keep a few. So consider this the public comment period on my proposed federal rule to convert most golf courses into public parks. Let the golf-induced rage begin.