I was fortunate enough to play golf recently at Covered Bridge, the home course of senior tour player Fuzzy Zoeller. A former Masters Champion, Zoeller has built a terrific golf course nestled on a gently rolling plain at the foot of Southern Indiana’s famous Floyds Knobs.
There were numerous lakes, a meandering creek and trees everywhere. Just the right kind of course for an18-handicapper like me! Yah right. The Zoysia grass fairways made it feel almost like hitting each shot off a tee. The greens were true, the rough fair and the company terrific. It was so good in fact that I won my first scramble tournament in my golfing life with my tremendous teammates. My secret to success? Play a scramble with partners who are better than you. I’m proud of my Fuzzy Zoeller head cover, complete with his famous sunglasses. I can now die peacefully knowing I’ve crossed another goal off my list – winning a golf tournament. Boy, do I need a life!
We played at 8 a.m. in the morning on a beautifully sunny day. With corn fields and cows around us, it brought back a lot of memories of my early days of playing golf and appreciation for green spaces. I grew up on a farm, as you may recall. In previous messages I even spoke of a baseball park and whiffle ball golf course on the hobby farm my parents owned.
I also spoke of the first “real” golf course I ever played on, a nine-hole course called Crow Greens Golf Course. It was on the banks of the mighty Crow River about 30 miles west of Minneapolis. The owners took a cow pasture and turned it into a golf course.
How things have changed from those early teenage years to today – 40-plus years later. Instead of parched grass on a hot day in August walking with my used set of $30 golf clubs (I split the set with brother Dan – he got the two and four woods, plus three, five, seven and nine irons, while I got a driver, three wood, plus two, four, six and eight irons) that had been tied with twine to the back of my bike, I’m playing on a beautifully maintained Fuzzy Zoeller course.
But have things really changed from back in the early 1960s? In some ways, no. You still hit a white ball with dimples off a tee, down the fairway (or rough usually in my case), onto the green and in the hole. Only today as I play, I probably appreciate more the green spaces I walk through. Back then I was only worried about getting an occasional par, not losing any balls in the surrounding cow pastures and hoping it wouldn’t rain on my five-mile bike ride back home.
But in some ways, definitely yes. Today the Green Industry, whether on a golf course, sports field, home landscape, community parks, boulevards, etc., is constantly defending the right to use the proper products and services to maintain those green spaces.
Yes, consumers must be prudent in their use of water to keep lawns and landscapes healthy. Equipment should always be properly maintained; fertilizers and products to eliminate weeds, insects and diseases must be used at properly labeled rates.
Those who blindly believe that those who work every day in the Green Industry aren’t concerned about the green spaces around us are in need of the Project EverGreen message more than ever.
Our organization has been promoting the environmental, economic and lifestyle benefits of green spaces for two and one-half years now. We have a long ways to go. But now that I’ve won my first scramble golf tournament, anything’s possible, right? You’d have to see me golf to appreciate that.
Watch our web site – www.projectevergreen.com and www.yardenthusiasts.com in the months ahead as we pursue our goals of educating and informing consumers about the benefits of well-maintained green spaces. We have many new projects set to go, including the start of a pilot project in the city of Akron, Ohio, in January where we plan to blanket the city with “green” messages.
Call us and let us know how you can help and be part of this great initiative. Why? Because Green Matters of course.