Rovaniemi photo
Santa can relax this year. We're a little too old and tad large to sit on his lap, and we don't like lines anyway. Still, there are many things the golf business could use for Christmas.
In the past few years, golf has been gifted with a lot of new players, but we had to endure a global pandemic to get them. Almost three years later, the effects of the pandemic still linger, but most of those new golfers have left the game nearly as quickly as they joined it. Ever since, Santa's sack has been pretty much empty, at least as far as the golf business is concerned.
We asked a few people what they would like to see under the tree on Christmas morning, and their answers probably won't surprise you. Needless to say, let's hope Santa has a big sack, a really, really big sack and that the Grinch doesn't cherry pick it.
Paul McCormack, Fox Meadow Golf Course, Prince Edward Island
"I’d love it if Santa brought us a healthy dose of perspective . . . remembering that we prepare a surface for people to play a game on, nothing more…nothing less."
Sean Tully, Meadow Club, Fairfax, California
"Rain and lots of it. We are seeing another year of abnormal rain events and I’d prefer we stay away from water restrictions for 2023. That and less frost, cause its raining."
Kim Erusha, Ph.D., former USGA Green Section director
"I hope Santa brings plenty of snow cover so that superintendents can have a long winter’s nap, but less than 60 days of ice encasement so there’s no need to fret about turf loss."
Matthew Woodcock, Old Erie Golf Club, Durhamville, New York
"Santa can bring something to most people not just the golf business. Acceptance. Acceptance of numerous ideas/opinions. There is room for private and public courses. We don’t have to be pitted against each other , we cater to different peoples needs. And that also goes for different approaches to agronomy and the game as a whole. As my first boss in the industry said “there is more than one way to kill a cat."
Jim Brosnan, Ph.D., University of Tennessee
"I think most superintendents could answer it with a single word — labor."
Craig Kessler, Southern California Golf Association
"In the Southwest what the golf community most wants from Santa is a well above average precipitation year, particularly precipitation in the form of a healthy snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Basin."