Studying Life After a Golf Course; What Then?
By Tom Lang
Brian Horgan is not a mystic, but he is part of a large USGA research team trying to look long into the future of golf.
The task he and many others around the country have been reviewing for more than five years is: if a golf course is meant to no longer be a golf course, what are the alternate options? In other words, if not a golf course, then what becomes of the land? And what will be the impact – environmatally, financially and more – on the surrounding community of the new land use?
Horgan is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University. Previously, he spent 18 years on the faculty in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota. Horgan – who enjoys playing golf on occasion with hickory sticks – has research interests focusing on developing and integrating sustainability metrics for golf facilities. Specifically, his research seeks to position golf courses as urban greenspaces that provide economic and community value through ecosystems services. He lectures around the world on these topics.
Both at Minnesota, MSU and for one full year at the USGA offices in New Jersey, Horgan looked primarily at what happens to the green spaces of golf courses, if, for example, the community believes the local muni is losing too much money on its operations.
He said teams from the business school or policy departments would alter a course model into new residential, or converted it into urban density, or a shopping mall – and try to answer the question, how does that impact the community when you change it from golf to something else?
“If the conversation is just about the sport, it’s only focused on those people who actually (play golf),” Horgan said. “But if the area of influence that surrounds that golf course exceeds the recreational value, which it does, (but) the community says, ‘we’re losing $100,000 a year on this golf course.’
“I would argue that’s probably the best $100,000 you’re going to lose as a community, because of all the other things that that golf course does for the people that surround it,” living and working nearby.
“It can be looked at as a storm water retention area, or a pollinator or wildlife habitat, or an urban heat island, especially in the dense urban populations where green space is at a premium. Then we ask the question, ‘okay community, you don’t want this golf course because it’s losing money every year. If you chose to do something else, now we have a toolbox that will help you evaluate the impact of your decisions outside of it being just truly economic.”
He hopes to preserve more golf courses for many decades to come, even if the hickory sticks don’t make it.
