When I review a golf course, I have to guard against a natural bias: I hate golf courses that are built in “golf communities” in which the houses, condos or villas intrude on the course. Now, I understand a lot of people like this sort of thing, and I always try to take that into account.

But, I cannot imagine anyone living in such a community and saying they enjoy the “natural” views, as one woman said to me recently. A view of a golf course is not natural. Golf courses, to look at it from one perspective, are man’s attempt to present nature in his own image: usually, a controlled, well-ordered image. That’s why most people in the golf industry are Republicans.

I enjoy a beautiful golf course as much as anyone, perhaps more, since I see so many of them. But, I never fool myself into believing I’m communing with nature or anything of that sort. I’m playing golf. And there certainly are such courses in which the developer took pains to ensure the homes that line the holes are as unobtrusive as possible. But, far too many golf communities are layouts in which the developer has obviously tried to maximize the real estate value at the expense of the course aesthetics.

The courses I have enjoyed the most, by far, are those where you don’t feel like you’re sharing someone’s back patio: the Paiute courses on the Indian reservation outside of Las Vegas, the Georgia state course on Lake Russell, for example.

Permalink 1 comment