1/19/96

Mitch Emmons (emmonmb@mail.auburn.edu)

AU HISTORIAN EXAMINING IF U.S. GOLF IS PAR WITH ENVIRONMENT

AUBURN -- An Auburn University historian with a passion for golf and a concern for the environment is examining the relationship between the two in the United States.

James Hansen, a professor and chairman of the Department of History, is conducting research for a book he is writing about the evolution of modern golf in America and its impact on the environment.

"It's applied history," he said. "Hopefully, the prospective that I'll be able to provide will help people understand why we've reached the point we have, where something seemingly as innocent as golf can become an environmental threat."

U.S. golfers have grown to expect lush greens and fairways and immaculately landscaped courses, which Hansen says is a contradiction to how the traditional courses in Scotland are built.

"Early golfers knocked the ball across unaltered moors and dunes -- a natural, non-manufactured landscape," Hansen wrote in a paper he plans to present to a golf association in Scotland.

But American's quest for plush, green golf courses requires more use of pesticides and fertilizers, Hansen said, which poses environmental concerns.

An avid golfer since boyhood, a member of his college golf team and a former assistant greens keeper, Hansen said he has strong ties and a broad understanding of the environment issues surrounding the sport.

"I'll be interviewing golf course architects, greens keepers, golf organizations and course builders," he said. "I'll also be talking with people in the environmental movement. I'm interested in looking at a number of controversies regarding these issues. A lot of what I'll be analyzing will involve the visual aesthetics of golf courses."

Hansen said in contrast to European golf, which involves considerable ground-play strategies, American golf has evolved into an aerial game.

"Players on old (traditional) courses have to chose strategic paths from tee to green," he explained. "They have to play the bounces and rolls.

"American courses are fixed narrow fairways with mechanically groomed sand bunkers and immaculate greens -- designed primarily for the eye-appealing green turf."

The sport of golf has grown into a multi-million business with millions of players in the United States says, Hansen says. He adds that there are proponents of the sport who believe that it could grow even larger if U.S. golfers would lower their expectations for lush fairway turf.

The attitudes of many golf course designers have changed more in favor of the natural over the artificial in recent years, says Hansen. He calls this change in thinking a "minimalist" movement, but the ideal is prevalent more in other countries than in the United States.

"Much about the future of golf in the United States and around the world depends upon a turning away from our passion for green and the heavy investment it involves and a return to the original rawer playing conditions," Hansen said.

jan96:AU-golf

CONTACT: Hansen,334/844-6628.