F-L-O-G: It's Golf Spelled Backwards in LJ

The enviros doffed their pith helmelts and sheathed their butterfly nets.

The golfers stopped polishing their Big Berthas.

Both sides came together the other day to see what Lake Jackson's version of the 100 Years War hath wrought. Everyone made nice while taking a look-see.

It's a golf course! All green and pretty and manicured like you see on the TV. Right there in the middle of the woods, where migrating birds have been stopping for eons.

From the beginning, we could appreciate the position of both sides. We like golf and the people who play it. It just seems to make them happy. And we like to see people happy.

And we like birds. In fact, as we approach our golden years, we confess we've come to appreciate birds more than golf. We watch them in the backyard. Hummers and such. And this time of year, especially, when The Great Spirit moves them to suddenly fly north, we see birds that we've never noticed before. Fantastic.

Now everyone can watch the birds AND play golf. It makes the shanking of that first tee-shot into a federally protected wetlands much less emotional, though not less expensive.

Of course, the city's new golf course could have been built somewhere else. Of this we are sure. This ain't Manhattan. Hell, this ain't even Pearland. But it's done, so everyone seems of a mind to resume civil conversation. It wasn't always like that.

It's a rather expensive recreational venture the City of LJ has undertaken.

Six-million-plus samoleans, last time we checked. Probably more by now, but you wouldn't know by how much if you relied on the local paper(s). And it might be a money-loser, but so are a lot of other things government does. Even so, those things, for the most part, don't involve hitting small white speres into 18 small holes that have been strategically placed in the ground, and then keeping track of many times the small white sphere must be struck to accomplish that goal. Those other money-losing things involve the more mundane tasks of picking up the garbage and keeping the street lights working and moving the sewage.

Still, man does not live by bread alone. He (and she) must recreate. Or they might go off the deep end. That, or spend way too much time sitting in the garage watching passing traffic.

Aye, if you build it they WILL come.

Will they come in three years? Five years? Ten years?

No to rain on anyone's parade, but nearly three million of the 26 million adult golfers in the U.S. quit each year, says the National Golf Foundation, an industry research group, reports The Wall Street Journal.

" Why?" the Journal asks.

" Health, job and family obligations, and other spare-time attractions are some of the reasons. But underlying those, dropouts say in surveys, is this: The game is too difficult, too time-consuming and too expensive.


" 'It is so difficult that about two-thirds of those who try the game quit because they don't think they will ever be able to play [it] respectably,' says Ron Drapeau, chairman of Callaway Golf Co.

"The good news is that a little more than three million Americans take up the game annually. But that's barely enough to make up for the dropouts: For more than the past decade, the number of golfers has grown an average of less than 1.5% a year."

The Journal continues:

"Worse, those who play are also playing less. World-wide, golf play has declined since 1999. For the third straight year, the total number of games, or rounds, of golf played in the U.S. -- the most important barometer of the industry's health -- fell in 2003. From a high of an estimated 518.4 million rounds in 2000, play declined to 495 million rounds last year, according to the golf foundation."

Of course, back when the LJ golf course plans went into motion, things were different. And we were all a lot younger.

Who could have known?

It may all work out. We hope so.

And if it doesn't, there are other recreational endeavors the city might consider tackling if the golf option doesn't pan out. Jai alai, croquet, badminton, paintball, squash, steeplechase, bocce ball. The list is endless. And there are acres and acres of woods out there.