If I asked you why so many derive pleasure from golf, you might say “proximity to the bar”. Not wrong… but let me take you somewhere else. Pleasure is tied to the landscape golf sits upon. That’s pleasure from playing, and many people find pleasure from living on the edges of a golf course and having it be your backyard.
Take a Top 100 list and look at the landscapes those courses sit upon. Now think about every course that has been built in the last 20 years, (Bandons, Streamsongs, Cabots, Erin, Nebraska, Sand Valley type stuff) all of them wildly successful, all of them completely based in experiencing nature and of course, getting the euphoria of enjoying an incredible, often unique landscape.
Golf is just better in a natural landscape. But golf also improves a natural landscape, and we don’t need to look any farther than what is being built around the edges of RSPGL. Twenty years ago, if you built a house in this location, or rented an apartment near the Wrightstown exit, you would simply be living in a cornfield. What’s so special about that?
Today, you get to pay extra for that same dwelling to enjoy the landscape RSPGL has perfected. Why do developers build next to golf courses? It’s because humans love to look at pretty landscapes. From your kitchen window, you can now appreciate golf’s beautiful layer… as it has enhanced the landscape. Out your front door, its looks like the city, but out the back… it’s like you’ve been transported. Awesome!
Sadly, this a one way street. Maybe the golf course will receive increased usage thanks to increased human proximity; merely a theory I’m supposed to accept to make my hardships along the way seem more palatable. It’s sad to me, that developers and homeowners can soon take advantage of the enhanced landscape, while golfers will slowly loose the look of their wild landscape experience, as a fabricated civilization back-drop replaces nature. Bummer. I think about the golfers. Maybe I’m an idiot, but the only thing I care about are the golfers. I like to think golfers appreciate that.
