Decades from now golfers may look back in amazement at Arnold Palmer's foresight. Imagine a course much longer than today's versions with not a blade of grass in sight. Palmer recently predicted some new layouts could be made entirely from artificial surfaces.
West Virginians believe otherwise. Some feel that won't come any time soon - at least not here. To them, fake grass would be a natural course ruined.
"Hmmm. I've never heard of such an idea," said Vivian Stockman, an organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "That's so far into the future that there's too many unknowns about it."
Groups like hers long have chided the golf world for the amounts of pesticides and water used on courses. But to them, going from green grass to green turf can't be much better.
"If you're talking about clearing land of its natural vegetation, there's bound to be some bad ecological implications with that," Stockman said.
Palmer, who has designed more than 200 courses worldwide, said the demands of water use, particularly in the West and Midwest, will make synthetic golf a reality.
He believes there won't be any resistance to such a movement. In fact, discussions are already under way, he said.
"Short-term, it's still hard to comprehend," said Danny Fisher, executive director of the West Virginia Golf Association.
"Mr. Palmer is well educated and well known in architecture and talks to a lot of experts in the field. But I would think artificial-turf golf courses would have to be, at a minimum, two, three, four generations down the road."
But why not go artificial? Baseball and football have done it.
"Golf is even more of a traditionalist sport than any of those holding on to history and tradition," Fisher said.
Fisher believes what might end up happening is a blend of grass and turf together. Some courses already have experimented with artificial greens, tee boxes and practice ranges.
"But completely artificial?" Fisher said. "We're too ingrained into the way the real game is played for generations. That wouldn't be considered golf. Personally, I don't look forward to the day. It's too different."
The folks who grip-and-rip for a living would salivate at the chance of watching a golf ball bounce 50 yards at a time off a fake surface until coming to rest 350 or 400 yards away. It would almost be like watching a stone skip off water.
And while golfers on grass splash through puddles following a heavy rain, artificial courses might enable them to play without having to change their socks. Golf carts won't have to follow the traditional "90-degree rule" intended to keep grass from being ruined by tire tracks.
Another plus would be the reduced upkeep. There would be no pesticides, no constant watering, and no mowing. That would save thousands, perhaps millions, in long-term labor costs.
Then again, golfers love the ability to shape a shot and make a ball stop quickly on a grassy green. That would be difficult to do on a rock-hard artificial surface.
"The problem I see is you need a cement base, so you're going to have to make the course extremely long. You would need a 16,000-yard golf course to accommodate the roll," said Craig Berner, the head pro at Sissonville's Edgewood Country Club, site of next week's West Virginia Open.
"In West Virginia, maybe down the road," he said. "Nothing anytime soon."
By then, Berner could be a 70-year-old grandfather still hitting those 300-yard drives.
"I'll be rooting for them then," he said.
Source: Charleston Gazette
