Golf has a long and often deserved reputation as a stuffy sport obsessed with notions of the past and tradition. But unlike the Olmstead Parks Conservancy’s years-long passion project to dismantle Cherokee Golf Course, a long list of municipal golf courses around the United States are forward-looking, meeting challenges with creativity and evolving to meet the needs of their patrons. The future of golf points to a sport that doesn’t take so long, one that forgoes its worst puritanical tendencies, and one that wants to help, rather than harm the environment.
In an age where we’ve suspended our collective capacity for sustained concentration, talk around the golf world is that the sport needs to meet the time constraints of the modern human. A short, 9-hole course, like Cherokee Park, meets those needs. It’s also without the trappings and formality that dissuades folks from picking up the game. In the right hands and with creative changes, a course like Cherokee is precisely what golfers want and need.
Similarly, short courses require less maintenance and cost less, expanding access for individuals who may find the sport prohibitively expensive. The Olmstead group uses words like equity and inclusion, but aren’t they advocating for shutting down access to a 100-year-old public service and one of Louisville’s most affordable golf options?
