Are U.S. golf courses too green? (2/4ページ)

"In Scotland they water golf courses to keep them alive," Liddy said. "In America we water to keep them green. They spend probably a third of what we spend on maintenance; very little water, very little fertilizer."

A wall-to-wall irrigation system costs about $1.3 million, Liddy said. Most links courses water only tees and greens.

Maintenance budgets on first-rate American private clubs like Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., regularly exceed $1 million. During grow-in or periods of extreme heat, a course might pump a million gallons of water a day.

"If people could accept some brown a couple months a year, that might be cut by a third to half," Liddy said.

Cutting irrigation, fertilization and maintenance would cut costs, green fees, private club dues: $50 golf might become $40 golf.

Less water, chemicals and maintenance also would affect playability.

Liddy isn't advocating building links courses, of which the only true forms are found in the Old World, built on the sandy oceanside ground that "links" land and sea. But he holds that much can be learned from them.

Links golf is played along the ground. Most shots afford a range of possibilities and it usually is easier and more effective to bounce and roll, play the dips and mounds, run your ball along the firm, fast fairways. Those kinds of shots are within the capacity of the average player. The better player is forced to think, to choose.