Ethics of Watering a Golf Course (In Africa)

Water will be one of those scarce commodities in the future. Cape Town was almost the first major city in the world that ran out of water. We called it “Day Zero” for when the water should have run out. Luckily, the water did not run out. But what was the impact? Living in the Cape Town region, I can say that not much have changed. And this is so true on golf courses.

Today was almost 40 degrees Celsius (37.5 C when I got out of the car.

Playing golf in this heat takes a special kind of commitment! But I digress. For the 5 or so hours that we played, they watered the greens and fairways. When we finished playing, they continued wetting the greens and fairways. They even watered parts of the course I feel was so unnecessary (like the driving range rough).

Sprinkler system.

Dead grass.

Close up of the green grass.

Inherently, this is a political subject. Purely the question, What could have been done with this water?, is not something you can answer in a neutral voice. Alas, here we play the privileged game and we inherently support the usage of water…

General Golf Photography and Musings

Golf is a funny sport. While you play it you can hate it so much but afterwards you yearn to relinquish yourself and your bad score. As if the next round will be better.

Also, funny how we love this ancient game, but the ancients will not recognise how we play it today. Different clubs, polished courses, are we even playing the same game?

How different is golf from other sports? You play against yourself. There is no rules against cheating. You are the only referee who keeps an eye on you. Cheat and you will only cheat yourself.

The 19th hole is the only hole you want more shots on.

Alas, we drink to forget our bad round but then we yearn to get out there again sober! Maybe we should start to drink on the course.

Lastly, check this old tree. I think it is a wild olive tree (we call it in my native language “olienhout”). It is really beautiful. Appreciate the small things. Always appreciate the small things.

Have you seen the amount of water they use on golf courses? Not even to talk about the chemicals they spray to keep the weeds away. What have we become? In any case, the photographs were taken with my iPhone. The musings were my own, next time I should play more golf and think less. Stay safe and stay active!
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Golf