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The Golf Experience - Your Way!
survey. We would appreciate your opinion and will discuss the results at the 2012 Symposium on Affordable Golf
Mission Statement
The Symposium On Affordable Golf raises awareness and understanding of the challenges of the golf industry through open discussion, exchange of ideas and highlighting successes that promote the health and sustainability of the game of golf.
Welcome
On Monday, November 7, seventy people came together once again for the second Symposium On Affordable Golf in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Building upon the momentum of last year’s event, the Symposium brought together a cross-section of speakers touching upon tried and true ways to bring the business of golf closer to the roots of the game of golf. Speakers from Northern California to Scotland delivered one primary message: The golf industry can learn from the unlikeliest of places ways to ensure the sustainability of not just the playing fields but the economics of the business as well. Once again, the golfer was well-represented and had a strong voice at the Symposium alongside industry experts.
Paul Chojnacky, Superintendent of Pasatiempo Golf Club, shared two major projects aimed at improving long-term conditioning while saving resources and environmental inputs. In particular, budget cuts forced the club to look at reducing the amount of maintained turf without impacting the strategy and playability of the golf course. The reputations of many clubs preclude them from undertaking such a radical approach in an environment of wall to wall manicured turf. But Chojnacky showed that by understanding the simple virtues of solid golf architecture, any club, no matter their perceived “pedigree”, can focus on turf reduction while improving the enjoyment of the game at the same time.
Gordon Irvine, a golf course management consultant from Scotland, contrasted maintenance practices in America to the simple management approach found throughout the U.K. He specifically showed how in the proper climate, a drastic reduction in chemical use will have little negative impact on the playing surfaces of golf courses. Tom Mead broke down the buzzword of today, “Sustainability”, by demonstrating more than sixteen different ways any club in the world can reduce costs, waste, and energy from the parking lot to the maintenance facility.
Plans for the 2012 Symposium are well underway with more topics and speakers slated to extend through the morning of the second day. Please make plans to attend the expanded 2012 event on October 29 – 30. Topics and speakers will be announced in April.
Thanks
Richard Mandell
Richard Mandell Golf Architecture
Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA