THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702010001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Kerry Dougherty
LENGTH: 79 lines
Comedian George Carlin has a wickedly funny routine in which he pokes fun at golfers. If memory serves me, Carlin decries wasting land on golf courses and ridicules this sport where grown men with too much money whack little white balls around acres of prime real estate.
Always the acerbic social critic, Carlin ruminates on how the land could be better used to produce food to feed the hungry.
Which brings us to Lake Ridge, that valuable hunk of property in rural Virginia Beach owned by the city. It is presently home to the GTE Amphitheater, and there are big plans for the remaining acreage: two schools and a soccer stadium, perhaps an equestrian center.
News leaked last week of an agreement in the works for a new championship golf course to be built at Lake Ridge. The course would be an elite ``Tournament Players Club'' or stadium course - a category of golf course developed by the PGA Tour with lots of knolls for spectators.
While it is unlikely Virginia Beach would be added to the PGA Tour, the course would likely draw other big tournaments to town and would certainly be a magnet for golfing enthusiasts from up and down the East Coast. It's all part of the city's master plan to transform Virginia Beach into a golf mecca - luring rich tourists and retirees to the city in the process.
George Carlin would call this use of public land a travesty. I don't. I'm no golfer, but I think golf courses are an elegant way to maintain green space in a city while making money at the same time. Besides, the gently rolling landscape is a pleasure to behold.
And, unlike Carlin, I harbor no illusions that if this golf course falls through the city will instead plant corn on the land to distribute at local soup kitchens.
But the fact remains that golf courses are primarily the playground of the affluent. Despite the development of many municipal courses, the image of the average golfer is a rich white man in bright clothes. Which is fine; wealthy white men need a place to unwind after running the world all week in their drab suits. Maybe, if these guys spent more time golfing and less time running the world, we'd all be better off. But I digress.
City officials are positively giddy about this new golf course which promises to be one of the premier courses in the region. They should be; it would be a jewel in Virginia Beach's golfing crown.
But before the city throws $3.5 million at the golf course - in what must be lauded as one heck of a deal - I think it also ought to make plans to spend money on a pioneering youth golf program. It would open this elite course and others to the rest of the community.
Since this will be a public course, paid for with millions of tax dollars, the city needs to simultaneously develop a plan to put youngsters on that course. Not just the kids of golfers or a handful of golfers from the city high schools, but youngsters from all around the city. Children from homes where golf clubs are as alien as caviar.
The high schools already have a limited golf program, and the municipal courses let the players practice without paying greens fees. But in the great scheme of high school sports, golf barely registers. For instance, Virginia Beach Public Schools spend a whopping $70,000 every year on football equipment, while spending just $4,000 on golf. Middle schools and elementary schools do not have golf programs.
If we seriously want to transform Virginia Beach into a golf mecca, we ought to teach the children how to play.
Should a PGA player emerge from the ranks of our children, it would do wonders for the local golf scene. Look what Williamsburg resident Curtis Strange has been able to do for the Kingsmill Course. Look at the pride Cypress, Calif., is taking in the phenomenal success of Tiger Woods - who had a golf club in his hands almost as soon as he could walk.
The next Curtis Strange or Tiger Woods or Nancy Lopez could be a second-grade student right now in one of the city's elementary schools. Let's try to put golf clubs in the hands of receptive children around the city and make this not just a community with a lot of golf courses but a commmunity that loves golf.
In 20 years' time, you might drive by a golf course and get the surprise of your life. The duffers on a Virginia Beach golf course might not look like tourists but they might look like Virginia Beach itself: male, female, white, black, young and old.
And if a cynical guy like George Carlin happened by, he'd have to rethink his elitist stereotypes about the sport. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.