I used to work for a golf course and club. In recent years golf clubs have tried to portray themselves as inclusive and environmentally friendly, like how Donald Trump used that argument on Scottish locals. From my own experience, I know this is complete bull.
For starters, hundred.... I mean HUNDREDS of birds die every week due to golf balls. The lucky ones die instantly from crushed skulls. The rest die slowly from being struck in the air and severely breaking bones. But it gets worst.
Due to the way most golf courses are built, trees that actually are on the course or nearly cut off from trees outside the course, meaning that if they do happen to build a nest in a tree in the course, they not only risk getting struck while scavenging for food, but also risk getting their nest hit.
Seriously, you'd be AMAZED how bad gold players are. There are next to no good ones outside the professional circuit.
And that's another thing; the people. I'm saying this based on my own experience; they are the most snobbish, rude, and racist people. Remember the birds I told you about? One day I was tending to a flower patch, when two golfers were strolling passed.
At first I didn't pay much attention, but that was until I noticed one take out his club, stick it underneath a dead bird in front of them, and swung it over a wall. The only thing missing was him calling "four!". Now, as for the racist thing, here in Ireland, "labor" jobs are seen as being for "foreign people".
I'm Irish born and raised, was top of my high school at the time, and I worked simple, hard labor jobs my whole teen life. I never thought of these honest, humble jobs as anything else as that until one day, I was cutting a tee-box on the course, and two female golfers came up to me, saying "no, no, no.... we-play-here-now". The speak in very clear, pronounced, loud, monotones.
At first I was confused; I thought "Why is she speaking to me like I'm an idiot?". She then turned to the other golfer and said, right in front of me, "Oh, he must be Romanian". And then it hit me.... they thought I was an immigrant, simply because I was working this kind of job.
I was so shocked, I literally was left speechless, which probably only propelled their notion that I couldn't speak English. I left, amazed at how openly ignorant they were.
And the last thing I want to call out on is the "environmental" element. Now on the surface, neatly cut green grass and trimmed hedges may look nice, but there's two things people forget; how is it kept like that, and where does the waste go?
Straight off the bat, every piece of equipment, machinery, and appliance for grounds keeping was petrol power. Weed whackers, lawn mowers, tractors, john deer trucks, EVERYTHING. Imagine every golf course as using the equivalent of several home's worth of gasoline.
But what about the waste? What about the cut grass trimmings and tree branches that get in the way? Near by there was a stream, which let into the local town, going passed a high school, a grade school, and I can only guess where to next after that.
We were told EVERYTHING, was to be dumped into that stream, from the top of a bank still on the golf course property, to avoid being caught directly dumping into it.
I left that job after a month or so. It was good money, and was a great, honest, hard working job, but the people, the destruction, and the over all idea of the golf course... and indeed gold courses in general, just wasn't for me.
Username: conormatthews