As the ball is placed on the tee, a well-dressed man eyes the field to find his target. Miles down the fairway is the green, he spots his goal: a red flag signaling the course’s hole. After hitting the ball, he drives to the next destination without a care to the world around him, almost as if he was in paradise.

Golf is often seen as a leisurely sport, but around the courses, an aura of wealth surrounds them.

Such courses are seen as a blissful away from the busyness of society, yet they do nothing but cater to the rich, widening the inequality between the upper, middle and lower classes. Their waste of land and social inequities could be put to use on projects that benefit average Joe or lower Jane more than rich John.

From their developmental stages to their continued maintenance, many golf courses hold huge environmental footprints. Their water usage per day could put an entire city to shame. As reported by Julia Jacobo of ABC News, “ turf is responsible for 9% of the state’s water usage.”

Last year, California and the Bay Area were suffering from a major drought, necessitating a need for water cutback. Why then, should golf courses mooch off of the people’s much-demanded public resources to water useless grass that could otherwise supply working faucets, showers and drinkable water?

Such wasteful actions contribute no benefit to society, and only cater to the upper class. But it is not just the waste of public resources that is a problem. It is the environmental scale that it greedily absorbs. According to a study by the Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, developers often clear well-established ecosystems and natural features to make way for golf.

America should not tear up its grass to put in unnatural and nonnative plant species for a sport.
Further, golf is not financially fair. As estimated by Jason Scott Deagon of NBC’s Golfpass, the “first year in the game can cost anywhere from $832 to $3,454 for juniors and $1,849 to $3,349 for adults.” That puts golf at such a high entrance gap that it cannot compete with common sports like basketball, football or baseball. Such emphasis on high prices for starter goods keep the poor and middle class from affording such leisures, having to work paycheck to paycheck for a living.

The golf course is more than just a place for the nation’s wealthiest to visit. It becomes their sanctuary in times of crisis. The East Bay Times found that, traditionally, golf courses experience a boom when the economy is down. Why? Rich folks choose to go golfing instead of fixing the nation’s problems. Unfairly so, while everyone else toils, the rich get to use golf courses in a way no one else can.

A certain example of priviledged escapism lies in Donald Trump’s presidency, in which he reportedly spent 150 days playing golf. This all happened while the country dealt with a jobs crisis and a financial crisis amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from the social inequities, golf courses offer a solution to California’s housing crisis, that is, the need for affordable housing. The existence of flat and open lands offers the ability to rapidly put residents back on their feet and out of the streets. In San Jose, the Mercury News reported “It’s possible that 2,480 to 3,991 residences could be developed on the golf course site (Pleasant Hills Golf Course).”

Thanks to the 1971 Public Parks Preservation Act, Big Golf is able to make millions of dollars while keeping much needed funds out of the local government’s grasp.

Rather than keeping golf courses as a playground for the wealthy, these courses should go toward benefiting the local population, both socially and economically. Affordable housing, park restorations and millions of dollars back to the public will serve as a return on investment and support to keep these courses.