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| May 3, 2007 |
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Divot Mix"Good play is, on the whole, the product of good courses. How fortunate it would be if that were believed and borne in mind by the more indifferent golfers when they are inclined to oppose those seeking to improve our courses!" -- Robert Hunter "Bird Cam" makes a great educational tool
In this month's Green Links from EDGE on eifg.org, Alan L. Nielsen, CGCS at Royal Oaks Country Club, Vancouver, Wash., details the unique way the staff and members at the club are learning about cliff and barn swallows. Bird houses on golf courses are not at all uncommon, but a "bird cam" is definitely unique. In the spring of 2005, the club’s Audubon committee approved a bird cam project to monitor the arrival and nesting habits of swallows. The purpose was to:
The club purchased a mini camera and transmitter and installed it in a nesting box. The video signal is transmitted to a receiver in the clubhouse and shown on a monitor placed in the members lounge. Club members can observe the birds nesting cycles such as building their nests, laying their eggs, incubation, hatching, feeding, and fledging. Greenlinks is hosted by GCSAA Class A superintendent David Phipps, and features guest columnists Gerald and Donna Schwanke, from Royal Oaks' Audubon committee. Take Your Daughter to the Course coming in July The number of girls 12 to 17 playing golf has more than doubled since 1998--328,000 to 775,000, according to the National Golf Foundation--but the percentage of junior girl golfers compared to boys playing the game still shows a wide disparity. Junior golfers playing between 8 and 26 rounds per year – which the NGF describes as "core" players – are 83 percent boys and 17 percent girls.
If you look beneath the statistics, you'll see that as golfers get older core male and female golfers are similar in many respects," says Mike Hughes, CEO of the NGCOA. "Most important, average annual rounds for adult golfers are very close (36.0 for females and 37.7 for males). That says that women golfers are very valuable customers, and that we should be using our best efforts to attract them to the game." The National Golf Course Owners Association's Take Your Daughter to the Course Week, which in the past seven years has worked close the gender gap between boys and girls golfers and increased family interaction, returns to golf courses throughout the U.S. this summer as part of the PGA of America's Play Golf America initiative. More than 1,200 golf courses nationwide are expected to participate in Take Your Daughter to the Course Week, July 9-15, when participating courses will offer free greens fees and instructional clinics to junior girls who are accompanied by a paying adult. Golf rounds played rebound in March
Rounds Played, 2007 vs. 2006
Public facilities fall into one of three categories based on peak season weekend green fees with cart Two named winners of Because Green Matters award Located along the Orange River, Verandah was Florida's first community to achieve certification as a Green Development by the state's Green Building Coalition. The development has also been certified by the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program for its work in promoting water conservation and preservation of other natural resources through Florida-friendly landscaping. |
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Rounds played in the U.S. were up 11.3 percent on a same-facility basis in March 2007 vs. March 2006. March’s better performance brought the first quarter figure to -4.0 percent. The large drop in March in the Northeast was due in part to about three fewer play days on average, as reported by operators. Conversely, the large increase in the Southwest was due in part to more than three extra play days in the month of March vs. last year.  |
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