Letters

So true

You continue to amaze with your great take on using the communications of today’s world (“Anti-Social Behavior,” April 2012). Love the last line, it’s so true: “If you don’t figure that out, the guy who takes your job certainly will.”

Half the people in a recent poll think Facebook will not be around forever, duh. But something new will keep coming out, and those who stay abreast will succeed. Great writing and great vision on the fact that people want “a little taste of everything.”

Jeff R. Wendel, CGCS
Executive Director
Iowa Turfgrass Institute

One more time

Thanks for posting Adam’s blog (“Plum Perfect,” June 2012). Many of us have said this to ourselves and our staffs. Sometimes we even listen to our own words. It’s a message that bears repeating over and over and over!

Dave Davies, CGCS
TPC Stonebrae
Hayward, Calif.

What a great article (“Plum Perfect,” June 2012) full of truth. I’m glad I had my first child 8 years after being a superintendent or I might not have had enough trials and tribulations to realize what is really important in my life. It’s not those 18 holes of golf I relentlessly tried to make picture perfect every day and every moment I was there.

I hope many people in our business read this article and realize the course will always be there, but our time with loved ones and family passes by us every day. That grass has no feelings or appreciation for what we do, and it never thanked me or told me I was the best like my wife and son do. So who really deserves the attention we, as superintendents, focus our energy and time on?

Scott Giles Superintendent
Greencastle Golf Club
Greencastle, Pa.

Bullseye

Bob Lohmann’s article, “Design it forward” in the June issue of GCI was right on target. Let’s not get so caught up in the idea that moving tees and eliminating hazards will keep courses economically viable. A well-designed golf course with strategic features will keep golfers interested, challenged and, most importantly, playing. “Playability” does not mean bland.

We are in such a stressful economic time for most courses and, of course, we need to be cognizant of the “time” and “difficulty” issues that are a definite reality today. The worry, however, is that “the baby will be thrown out with the bath water”... reducing good courses to a shadow of what they once were. It is so important that a golf architect at least review design changes, as Bob states in his article, so that courses retain their strategic value.

That, coupled with the concept that women want shorter, easier courses is not, I believe, connected to a real understanding of how women think and what they want.

Victoria Martz, ASGCA
Victoria Martz Golf Design Inc.
Jacksonville, Fla.

Go West

Editor’s Note: The following article was written in response to GCIs special July Water Issue, especially Bruce William’s piece, “An LA Story.” Enter bit.ly/MEqP9w into your Web browser to check out the July issue’s digital edition.

In the many of the Western states private parties can “own” water, both surface and ground. These waters can and quite often are separated from the land that they may be on. In the West, just like in the old cowboy movies, people fight over water rights. No one can take this property right that is owned by you based upon the greater good as perceived by another. Your use can be regulated based upon seniority and or appropriations, but I am unaware of any takings or condemnation of water rights in the West.

Now, each state has its own set of laws, rules and regulations. Here’s a wild one for you. If my memory serves me right, in the 1990s there were only eight adjudicated basins in California. If you were not in an adjudicated basin, you could drill a well for any use by paying a nominal fee. I think it was about $50 and there was no approval process. You just showed up at the county offices, paid your fee and left with a permit. There were some recording and reporting issues– location, drilling log, perforation detail, sealing the surface – and an inspection. Does this surprise you? It shocked the hell out of me... you couldn’t do that in most of the other states out here. I had just kind of assumed that California would be the most restrictive. Wrong.

I have a working knowledge of water rights based upon my time in the West and some development experience along with knowing some of the big private water “players.” These water guys are a lot like oil guys. They can make literally millions or possibly billions or they can go bust if they buy into a downturn. It’s really interesting.

Armen Suny
Owner Suny Golf
Colorado Springs, Colo.

Editor’s Note — We made a slight faux pas in editing Jeff Brauer’s May column (“Design for maintenance,” page 70). In the subsection about greens surrounds, the wording should be “6 feet between the green and bunker for turning,” and not “6 inches...” We recognized too late that that would be one heck of a tight turn on a mower.