Abandon Greed For Green: Gary Player

For all the compliments Gary Player received upon receiving the Golf Business Canada Lifetime Achievement Award yesterday in Vancouver from the National Golf Course Owners Association, he handed some back to Canada.

“You have sufficient food to feed yourselves. You have a rainbow coalition of people, high standard of education,” said the Black Knight, who has been traveling throughout this country since the 1950s.

“You’ve got the minerals. You’ve got the oil. You’ve got the water, probably one of the most important ingredients. The world is running out of water very fast. It’s going to be one of the great problems of the world,” he said.

In his own inimitable fashion, Player was warning us about complacency, that things don’t stay the same and we should be prepared for big change and golf is part of that evolution.

“There are people who are against golf courses and, to a certain degree, sometimes they’re right because we use too much water and too much fertilizer,” he said.

“Now, we’re going into a new era where we’re going to use less fertilizer and we’re going to have great respect for the environment and that’s something the young people have got to do,” said Player, 74.

In order to reach that ultimate goal of golf being an environment-friendly greenbelt for all to enjoy, Player says the golf industry needs to separate itself from the greed that caused the recent economic meltdown, which is affecting his design company like any other business.

“We had 65, plus or minus, active jobs and I would say that, due to the economic crisis, 30 said, `Well, we’ll continue in two years.’ Another 15 said, `Okay, we’ll wait a year,’ and the other 15 were gone,” said Player.

“It’s affected me like everybody else and I think it’s a very good thing. It’s detoxed the world to a great extent. I think we’ve got to get away from that greed and cut back to basics,” he said.

That will affect not only the oversupply of golf courses in many areas, but our approach to building them, according to Player.

“We’ve got to now make sure we go in and redesign golf courses, make them shorter, make the greens less undulating, so the members can enjoy it and do something to encourage the family to take an active role in the golf club,” he said.

Of course, the temptation in recent years has been to super-size golf courses, muscle them up to tour standards, making them more intimidating to the majority of golfers who don’t play anywhere near that level.

A big part of that has been in reaction to the benefits of technology. Player says he is hitting the ball farther now than in his prime.

“Due to the technology, I hit the ball on a calm day, normal conditions, 260 and in my prime, I hit it about 250, but it you gave me the equipment they have today, I would have hit it 310,” said Player, who zeroes in on one aspect of technology for the challenges golf is facing today.

“The ball is going way too far,” he said. “They should cut the ball back 50 yards for every professional tournament. This is why we’re finding ourselves in trouble. The golf ball has ruined golf. The golf ball is partly responsible for these high costs and for the demise of golf at the moment.

“Every single golf course is making the golf course longer, the greens more undulating and the members hate it, the ladies hate it. There are less rounds of golf. The costs are just soaring,” said Player.

“Leave the golf course the length they were and cut the ball back,” he added.

“It’s for the good of the game”

It’s also good for the environment with less land usage and less water and fertilizer usage.