TOPIC:

Maybe we could have a bit of a south end golf outing of sorts. I know a few of you that golf. Would be great to play 18 this summer then have a few beers, food, and fish stories .

I can golf, doesn't mean I'm good at it lol. I would be interested in getting together for some fish stories and whacking at some balls.

I have been known to ruing a good afternoon's walk by chasing a stupid white ball around. As long as we all promise not to laugh to hard at each other, I'd be up for a round.

Excellent! I know will bill golfs as does tony from my crew. It would be great to get 10-15 people together and have a good time. Maybe we could get enough people together to randomly draw four man groups and do a scramble and keep things fun.

I’m in, and I’m sure Bruce would be in as well

Here's a golfing essay I've written for Michigan Outdoor News ----


THOSE GOOFY GOLF BALLS
By Mike Schoonveld
I’ll confess to being a recovering golfer. More like fully recovered. I haven’t owned a set of clubs since I got out of high school and my collection of Wilsons was hand-me-downed to my younger brother.
I did play a few rounds in the next decade or so with borrowed clubs; but as I matured, my recreational pursuits moved to more fishing and hunting and less “chasing the little round ball.” Little did I know I was saving the Earth by jonesing on golf.
I wasn’t a Tiger Woods (back then it was Arnold Palmer) so when I did play and encountered a water hazard, I often took full use of it and plunked my share of balls into the ponds, rivers or lakes guarding the fairways where I played. So do most other golfers, evidently.
A recent Internet post puts the number of golf balls littering America’s water-bottoms at 300 million. I don’t know if that’s total or each year but like many Internet statistics, it’s likely a just-plain-guess either way. Either way, that’s a lot of golf balls. Put ‘em all together and they would fill Yankee Stadium. (Actually, I just made that up, but feel free to repeat it as fact.)
No wonder they’ve gained the attention of environmental worriers. A stadium full of golf balls can’t be environmentally safe.
Why, I wondered? My first thought was perhaps something like otters, muskrats or water snakes were mistaking them for egg and eating them. Wrong! Researchers seeking facts about the curse of lost golf balls aren’t so much worried about snapping turtles in golf course ponds mistaking them for food, at least so far. If only they could document just one turtle with a golf ball clogged system, however, it would be revolutionary. After all, the worldwide ban-the-drinking-straw movement started with a single turtle’s straw-clogged nostril video.
If only some cute (or turtle-ugly creature) would turn up with golf-ball-itis both the golf ball industry as well as the “collect money to save the Earth” industry would benefit greatly. Golf ball makers could produce and market a variety of water-hazard friendly balls. Politicians and government regulators could make up rules and policies dictating all sorts of golf ball decrees. Tiger Woods and other pros could endorse environmentally sensitive balls. Environmentalists would have more reasons to picket golf courses, especially those frequented by unfriendly politicians.
Alas, it’s not whole golf balls causing the environmental degradation, it’s the conversion of golf balls into microplastic particles now consuming researchers’ dreams. Nothing lasts forever, even a golf ball in a lake. Eventually, the same forces of nature which formed the Grand Canyon and turned the mighty Scottish Mountains into the not so mighty Scottish Highlands (birthplace of golfing) will eventually grind a golf ball into little more than golf-ball dust and then what?
According to researchers for the DGA (Danish Golf Association) golf ball dust has been found to contain “dangerous levels of zinc” and then opined the zinc can poison plants. Maybe so in Denmark. I’ve heard the phrase, “Something is rotten in Denmark” - maybe it’s rotting golf balls. Here in the USA zinc is recognized as an essential plant micronutrient and regularly applied to the soil by gardeners and farmers.
Actually, I’m happy problem seekers have little more about which to worry than golf ball pollution around the two dozen or so golf courses in Michigan at which errant hooks or slices could result in Great Lakes golf ball pollution. If that’s the worst thing, we are in pretty good shape. At least until a turtle shows up on YouTube with a Titleist wedged in its throat.
THE END

Outstanding read... A statement that includes politics, environmental subject, and no hateful over tones.
Well written.

I’m in! I’ll play you Jeff only if you spot me a couple a side