Paying extra to walk your golf course?
NCSU administrator suggests a way to finance golf course-shortcut walking paths; Charge golfers who walk an extra fee -- on top of the greens fee -- to hoof it!
“Our carts and cart paths are primarily supported by the cart fee that is either paid separately by package plan holders, or included in the round for single round players. What per-round fee would you be willing to pay to help support the installation of walking paths?” — Jeff Halliburton, Senior Director, Retail Services, Campus Enterprises, NC State University
The immediate answer to a “fee for walking question” is a reminder of the call for a nationwide buying boycott of everything to protest the George W. Bush administration’s 2005 invasion of Iraq. “NOT ONE DAMN DIME” was the chant that went out then, and if Jeff Halliburton is serious with his request, the same applies: NOT ONE DAMN DIME! It should.
When Lonnie Poole Golf Course (LPGC) opened many years ago, the greens fee included the cart fee. If you walked, you paid for a cart anyway. When annual package plans were offered, the annual fee didn’t specifically include riding carts. Many of the annual payers wanted to walk though there were expectations those with annual plans would rent a cart.
Walking the golf course is great exercise, carrying your bag or using a push cart. It’s an important part of golfing tradition. LPGC is not a factory that requires everyone to perform the same tasks at the same pace. It’s a place to get away from the daily grind, though very slow play should not be tolerated.
There should be no charge for golfing exercise. It should be encouraged. In many cases, four walkers can complete a round quicker than four riders in two riding carts. And, there doesn’t need to be an extra charge for walking.
It’s hard to cipher if Jeff Halliburton was being serious or trying to be funny with his question: What per-round fee would you be willing to pay to help support the installation of walking paths?” Comedy is not one of his traits.
Cipher may be the wrong word to use in trying figure out exactly where the NCSU Campus Enterprises official is coming from with asking me — and, by extension, all other golfers who walk Lonnie Poole Golf Course and use the shortcuts created years ago by the course maintenance staff — what I would pay to create smoother walking paths.
Of course, he covered his comments, when my response stated and asked: I assume you were kidding when you asked what I would pay to help defray the cost of upgrading the walking paths. Were you? His answer: It was rhetorical, Jim. Was it? We can’t be sure.
This exchange in emails was prompted by an inquiry about the status of walking paths at Lonnie Poole Golf Course. These paths were and are intended to be “shortcuts” from greens to tees instead of walkers staying on concrete riding cart paths, a time consuming and longer route from the hole just completed to the next tee. If I follow the cart paths, don’t accuse me of slow play; just write it off to a longer course walk.
LPGC was not designed with the walking golfer in mind. Only three or four times in the round is the green and the next tee in such close proximity that do not require walking paths through terrible terrain or use of the concrete riding paths. The 3rd hole to the 4th tee and the 12th green to the 13th tee are two examples. You’ll be hard pressed to name others.
Back many years, the much appreciated maintenance staff worked with a band of walkers to determine walking routes, cutting overgrown grasses and weeds in blazing those trails and making the good walk shorter.
Several walking paths are stretched from the Competition Tees, those used by college golfers during college tournaments, to the fairway ahead to give those walkers (when the college golfers have to hoof it instead of using golf carts to traverse the layout) even surfaces so as not to twist ankles. Basically, the walking paths at LPGC are hazards, and Halliburton prefers to offer no free relief!
Over time, let’s say about 13 years, these shortcut paths have developed roots from nearby trees, grass clumps sprinkled throughout, and water erosion runoffs all of which make using the paths dangerous, especially those which are carved along sides of hills that lead to the next tee.
Many of the walking golfers have used the paths when soggy and slick from rain and deposited their rear ends into the wet and muddy surface of the walking paths. And, push/pull carts (some electrified) have been destroyed using these walking paths but saving time around the track. My manual push cart recently broke a rim as it bounced along the way; my electric push cart bounces so much you’d think an earthquake had hit. It does wonders for maintaining my club shafts. Hah!
Improving the walk paths has been a long-time discussion by the randomly-meeting LPGC Advisory Committee but, because that group has no power other than to offer advice, the project continues to stay further away than on the proverbial back burner. More of the updating email from Jeff Halliburton:
We have recently completed an internal study of the cart paths as well as potential development of improved walking paths. Based on our audit, initial budget numbers peg irrigated grass paths at around $100,000, and polymer-bound crushed stone paths at more than double that number. We will continue to include paths in our annual budget development discussions over the coming months.
That’s double speak for “we’ll get to it when we get to it and that will be when we get to it.” Money shouldn’t be the issue. If doing something for the patrons was tops on lists of things to do, the walking paths would have been improved several years ago.
It’s hard to imagine laying a durable grass sod with an irrigation system. Unless it’s a soaker hose type system, the weeds and tall fescue that abound around the walking path areas will also be watered, a waste of water, time and money. And, polymer-bound crushed stone paths? Don’t waste the money. There are two walking paths that were sodded with a Zosia breed a few years ago and without an irrigation system. These — from the 8th green to the 9th tee and from the 13th green to the 14th tee — have worked.
At the very least, the current walking paths need to be scraped to eliminate the grassy clumps, most of the tree roots, and the washed out areas. I’m told that would create bigger problems with the first rain. Easy to say but unproven at this point.
All paths don’t need to be scraped in a day. The greens superintendent needs to hop aboard a tractor with a blade attachment and scrape one or two, (and maybe) toss a little winter/summer rye grass for erosion prevention, use a roller to flatten and smooth the path, and then wait to see what happens with the first heavy rain. Would I pay for that experiment: NOT ONE DAMN DIME!
I’m not a turf grass expert, but I’m passionate about the administration doing something for the walkers at Lonnie Poole Golf Course, which will benefit all players and the course reputation. Maybe the world-renown turf grass program at NC State University could take it on as an academic experiment. Now, that may be an idea worth investigating.
It appears from his statement requesting money, Jeff Halliburton believes the walkers need to do something for the golf course walking paths. He’s got it backwards. Most golf courses offer annual improvements with the paying golfers in mind, giving instead of receiving.
If a walking fee becomes reality, then there should be a sand bunker fee — pay to play from a bunker (or offer a local rule for free relief from constant ground under repair areas known as sand bunkers) — because those sand bunkers have never been right since the course opened and that includes the result of a massive sand bunker renovation in recent years. Bad design; terrible maintenance.
So, Jeff, please make it a priority to improve the walking paths. Doing something is better than lip service and asking walkers for more dollars. Asking for more is only worth this answer: NOT ONE DAMN DIME!
NOTE: Jeff Halliburton oversees the auxiliary initiatives for the NCSU Campus Enterprises division, including Wolfpack Outfitters, Wolf Xpress, Student Centers, and the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. If you have an opinion on this subject, if you play LPGC and walk and want the walking paths improved, Halliburton can be contacted by telephone at 919-515-3817 or by email at: jwhallib@ncsu.edu
REMINDER: Halliburton’s sent and received emails are public records. This is included in his responses: "All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.”
Of course paying extra for walking is ridiculous. But another approach is to ask “which mode is best for the environment “? Electric carts are better than gas carts but both take energy to build, run, and maintain. Dennis Boos