A Round of Golf, Anyone?

The past few blog entries have centered around the Meadow Loop. I guess, then, that the golf course can’t be overlooked since it makes up about 50-acres of the meadow.

It is always interesting to observe people’s reaction to a golf course in a national park. The comments usually reveal their views of the purpose of a national park. Some people feel it a great privilege to be able to play a round of golf in such a scenic setting. Other people feel that the golf course is a man-made feature intruding on the natural beauty which the park service is designed to protect.






The golf course was one of the first to be built in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It first opened in 1918 before Wawona was even part of Yosemite National Park, When the Wawona basin was incorporated into the park in 1932, the golf course was part of the package.

The nine-hole golf course uses about 200,000 gallons of recycled water from the wastewater treatment plant each day (when the water is available). Because of its sensitive location, groundskeepers use organic (chemical free) practices in maintaining the course. It is Audubon certified, meaning that it is a bird-friendly and animal-friendly spot (although it could be argued that most of Yosemite National Park can claim that distinction). What a non-golfer like myself might finds intriguing is the periscope on the fifth hole tee which allows the golfer to view the flag over a rise.

Another interesting tidbit of trivia: my supervisor claims that if you look in a south easterly direction from the golf course you can see the tops of some of the sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove on a ridge five or six miles away. He may be right, but it is fun to argue with him all the same.
 
 

\What do you think? Is a round of golf an appropriate way to enjoy a national park?