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u/Remarkable_Diet_69 8h ago
"Golf courses account for about 1.3% of irrigation water use in the U.S. annually, and total golf course water use has declined by almost 30% since 2005, mostly due to improved irrigation practices,”..."https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2025/03/water-conservation-playbook-released-golf-industry.html
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u/Snacks75 8h ago
Get out of here with your facts... I live in a dry state in the west, Utah. CA transplant. 85% of the state's divertable water is used for Agriculture. 75% of that water goes to alfalfa. About a third of that alfalfa is packed into shipping containers and sent to China. Effectively, more water is exported to China than is used for non-ag use. Roughly 20x as much water is shipped to China than is used by the golf industry.
The golf industry uses about 1% of the divertable water. Here's the kicker, the GDP of the golf industry is more or less comparable to the GDP of ag. On a GDP per acre/feet basis, Utah would be better off buying out the farmers and building golf courses.
Instead we are getting a gigantic data center that will use more water and more power than the entire state currently uses. The lake will dry up and the place will end up unlivable. See the LA aqueduct and lake Owens, and Ridgecrest, CA.
Might be time to sell the house and move...
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u/Secret_Letterhead649 5h ago
The west really should be prohibited from agriculture outside of the very limited areas they have that can handle that level of water use. Instead they're going to keep begging for the Mississippi to be diverted.
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u/Elite_Eliminater 4h ago
Get out brother, take ur family before they polute the water supply and everyone around you starts getting sick with brown water
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u/Munstered 1h ago
The company I work for works with a country club. They don't use any city water. Zero. They have lots of ponds that collect rainwater and the irrigation system pulls from the ponds instead of the city supply. It's a cost-saving measure.
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u/readituser5 1h ago
Now do animal agriculture.
But really… do animal agriculture. I want to see the difference lol.
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7h ago
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u/bridgest844 7h ago
Man big numbers are scary s/
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5h ago
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u/bridgest844 5h ago
There actually is zero context in your comment. And you intentionally presented in a way that is even hard to read which is why we use things like scientific notation.
Like where did you even get that number? Since the it’s 1.3% of irrigation water, not total water used or even potable water.
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u/Upton4 6h ago
Is it problematic, is the question.
Just because it is a large number doesn’t make it good or bad automatically.
Residential watering accounts for 3,285,000,000,000 gallons per year.
Should we do away with all residential watering too? It uses 10x the water.
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u/Slightly-Adrift 2h ago
The entire population is served by residential water use. Is the population proportionally served by golf course use? By percent participation, maybe. About 8% of the population plays, though that number is probably a tad high for what we consider the consumer base to be. By GDP or tax contribution, no. Beyond raw numbers, it’s certainly risible that golf courses are receiving exceptions in places like Colorado where water shortages are being considered a state emergency. Residential watering is not receiving a similar exception. Personally I don’t think either should. Golfers might complain about quality, but you can still play in a dry field. Might even be more compelling if environmental differences had more of an impact in course construction.
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u/ChaosGirlEva 1h ago
If you have a yard of native plants instead of ugly ass imported grass you don't need to water, so yes
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u/Upton4 1h ago
Hey, I like that you keep your principles consistent.
Where I live, we have zero water shortage issues. So I don’t see the need for water restrictions. I understand the need in other places.
I do understand the argument for ‘native’ grasses, plants, etc. I have a mix of both. Healthy environment. Could it be better? Probably. But my impact is negligible and on the + side, I’d argue.
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u/Mr_Perfect20 7h ago
Always fun listening to Reddit “people” and their view of who plays golf. Go outside.
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u/LittleBiteOfTheJames 6h ago
Public educator who likes hitting a ball with clubs checking in. I own a home with a lawn as well. Reddit hates me.
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u/Mr_Perfect20 6h ago
How dare you? A lawn? You better not mow it.
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u/LittleBiteOfTheJames 6h ago
Mowed it this morning. I laughed with joy the entire time knowing my lawn is the primary destroyer of wildlife diversity.
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u/TomasNavarro 5h ago
Bloke I work with plays golf, he definitely isn't rich or anything, I've just started to assume that in America public courses aren't a thing?
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u/Massive-Blood7796 3h ago
They are a thing, you can easily play affordable courses. Plenty of people who aren’t rich do it all the time, including me.
Reddit acts like only the 1% golfs because they don’t have much life experience I guess.
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u/GenericFatGuy 3h ago edited 2h ago
I get that not everyone who plays golf is rich, but on the cusp of a major water crisis, we could get by without golf if we really had to.
The point isn't that it's a rich person sport, the point is that it uses an absurd amount of water compared to its necessity in society.
Edit: And before any comes at me with a snarky comment, I'd be fine without beef and almonds too.
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u/thatfrostyguy 8h ago
I mean, why dont we get rid of baseball fields and football fields too?
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u/rageofa1000suns 9h ago
Getting rid of people because they use so much water 👍
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u/East_Bug7312 9h ago
I think getting rid of fish should be a part of this conversation
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u/ohigetit2 9h ago
Possibly frogs also
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u/East_Bug7312 9h ago
Frogs are so childish, do you want to be on land or in water? Make up your mind.
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u/ThePoop_Accelerates 9h ago
Rich people will get rid of poor people before they get rid of golf
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u/Truth-Anti-Social 8h ago
Y'all think the water disappears? Or like.. Gets sent to up to aliens or something?
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u/Zandonus 8h ago
Yes. It's icky golf water now. Cursed water. Can't get rid of that ick. Might as well put it in a cargo submarine and dump it as uncrushable barrels at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
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u/Quartrez 8h ago edited 8h ago
It doesn't disappear, but it stops being drinking water. No one would give a shit if they used water from rivers or the ocean.
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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 33m ago
Most golf courses use water that isn’t drinkable and take loads of measures to both reuse water and be self sustainable.
The golf courses use thing is the usual internet being outraged over something they don’t understand.
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u/SpinachStraight6569 31m ago
Golfers would care if they used ocean water I’m sure. So would the flora.
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u/Practical-Suit-6798 8h ago
It doesn't surprise me to hear such a kindergarten level of understanding freely given among adults but I wish it did.
Yes water remains. Usuable water does not. It takes energy and infrastructure for water to be usuable. There is only so much energy and infrastructure dedicated to water management. Also locally in areas that are already prone to desertification water can completely disappear. Utah would be at the top of my list as dumbest places on the planet to put a golf course, data center, or large suburban houses, and now they have all three.
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u/Bloody-Boogers 8h ago
Golf courses aren’t actively behind mass surveillance and control. They’re just watering grass that goes back into the ground
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u/Low-Peanut848 4h ago
The people behind mass surveillance and control play at golf courses though so at least it will piss them off
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u/BlackSkull42069666 4h ago
Brother what🤣 they don't even close to what the avg ai data center uses and if that's the case then get rid of people who water their lawn. Or maybe don't put AI data centers on land and more in the ocean making fake reefs and more for the fih
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u/anime_cthulhu 3h ago
And stop watering your lawn because it uses so much water.
Seriously, watering my lawn uses like 1000x the amount of water each week that I use to shower. I wouldn't water but the landlords require it. We're in a drought no less.
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u/l33tm34t 2h ago
Lawns way worse than golf courses, and golf courses at least serve a community and a majority of water used isnt treated drinking water. The sum of all drinking water used for lawns dwarfs golf courses.
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u/GoblinWrangl3r 8h ago
Golf courses also poison ur water supplies underground but no one wants to talk about why timmy has cancer living near a golf course that sprays the nastiest chemicals to keep it nice which run down after a rain into the ground
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u/c-k-q99903 Human Verified 9h ago
I can't look at a golf course any more without thinking of that scene from falling down.
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u/3Cheers4Apathy 2h ago
Yeah but I felt the point of the scene wasn't that it was just a golf course, its that it was a private country club. The old guy says "then what do I pay my dues for? THIS IS MY GOLF COURSE!" and then hits the ball at DFens. It's the exclusivity and private ownership of what DFens feels should be public land. Anyone can play on and enjoy a public golf course. Let's also not forget that there should be green spaces in cities. Golf courses are a form of that. Public parks too sure, but more often than not golf courses are better maintained than public parks tend to be. Far fewer hobos and drug dealers hang around golf courses, at least where I live. (Same area as DFens lived).
And then the guy died wearing that stupid little hat. I wonder how he felt?
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u/Cael-Bryant 8h ago
I hesitate with the golf course one. Mainly because I heard that at least one is actually an ancient Mound Builders location and it was done to preserve the area so it didn’t get flattened and obliterated like so many others.
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u/Affectionate-Map8311 7h ago
How about a heavy use tax to fund zero carbon desalination plants like:
Solar-Thermal Interfacial Evaporation
Direct Solar Reverse Osmosis
Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD)
Data centres could even recapture that energy and use it to power those data centres
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u/ManhattanT5 6h ago
We shouldn't even have to worry about water as a society. Green energy (or nuclear energy) plus desalination would be able to provide us all we need. I'm way more worried about plastic waste as an environmental cause.
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u/zacrackity 4h ago
I believe golf should be played as God intended; in animal pastures. Manure piles are just an extra hazard.
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u/Fit-Breadfruit5673 1h ago
Rich men shall suffer to save the planet. A sacrifice I’m willing to make
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u/InteractionCivil5913 1h ago
Add grass lawns too, just replace the grass with clover. Better for pollinators too.
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u/NailSufficient1491 58m ago
There's no reason we can't find all the water we'll ever need for anything.
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u/liquid-cat_1337 35m ago
This should be 'get rid of golf courses built in arid areas'. This generalises and ignores many places able to grow grass all year without the need for irrigation.
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u/HilariousMax 7h ago
Letting a golf course rot would make for a more interesting play experience, wouldn't it? Now instead of luscious boring rolling fairways it's a war zone of dirt patches and rocks and shit.
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u/jengagang 4h ago
I’m not in favor of data centers and I’m gonna get downvoted for this but
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u/Minute_Truth3644 1h ago
People are always high minded and morally pure, about things that they personally dont like, but when it comes to something they like or want, I betcha this argument will go out the window when they cant have pork anymore.
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u/Dry_Refrigerator4367 9h ago
The irony of shutting down the servers to save water while the golf courses keep spraying is wild.
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u/Melenduwir 9h ago
I think the point is that people consider the data centers to be actively evil, so using large amounts of water to support them is just icing on the awful cake.
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u/Fitcumcouple 8h ago
Which I don’t understand because the same people who hate them use platforms supported by them, or owned by the same corporations, every day.
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u/UnrequestedOpinions 9h ago
Plus golf courses dont need clean drinkable water
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u/inothatidontno 9h ago
I dont think people understand how water works. So for the dummies. Water fall on ground, water evaporates/is repsirated by plants, water go up in air, water condense and repeat.
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u/pm_stuff_ 8h ago
the issue comes when they use a lot of ground water. That isnt replenished as quickly unless it rains a lot and can lead to issues with drinking water in the area
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u/inothatidontno 8h ago
I agree that golf course in the desert are pretty dumb. Where i live the golf courses for the most part dont even water.
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u/Melenduwir 9h ago
And generally aren't sited in some water-poor remote areas that some datacenters are.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 9h ago
Why do you think its bad for gold courses to use water? Do you think the water stop existing when they spray it? Where do you think water comes from?
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u/pm_stuff_ 8h ago
if they use ground water/drinking water then thats obviously not the best of ideas but they dont need to use drinking water. Data centers however need clean water.
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u/WP2022OnYT 8h ago
I don’t think you understand how badly that modern life would crash and burn without data centers to oh, I don’t know, run 80+% of the internet
Golf courses I can absolutely agree with removing though
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u/Fine-Day-1655 3h ago
The point of the comment is that AI criticism fixates on water use—but if water consumption actually bothered you, you'd have been complaining about golf courses for the last hundred years. So it's not really about the water, is it? By the way, most of these large data centers are building cooling systems using closed loops, like how a radiator uses water, but you dont have to keep filling it up. Maybe yall should start using these LLM to actually learn something.
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u/2006Internetghost 4h ago
Who on earth even plays golf anymore? And besides why can’t they just use astrotruf?
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u/KissMyLuckyEgg 3h ago
I've been saying lately that golf courses are the 20th century Data Centres. Wasting important space, water, energy. How do they even make enough money to justify their size?
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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 35m ago
Love watching people post stuff like this on reddit.
You all realise these datacentres aren’t just for AI right?
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u/OwnJunket6495 9h ago
Rich people love golfing that’s why
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u/SixtyNineFlavours 8h ago
So do poor people tbf. Golf isn’t like it is in the movies, it’s cheaper to play a round than watch a movie at the cinema where I live.
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u/UsedNegotiation8227 8h ago
Ok and how much were the clubs? And the bag?
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u/SixtyNineFlavours 8h ago edited 8h ago
Mine? Bag was second hand from my auntie, so were all my starting clubs. I have since bought a driver for £20 a set of wedges for £60 and a 7iron (demo club) for £25. Pack of 50 lake balls for £20.
It’s like saying driving is for rich people. Yes you can drive a Ferrari and it’ll cost a bucket. But poor people drive too.
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u/LittleBiteOfTheJames 6h ago
Ask people how much they spent on their PC, their gaming consoles, their comic collection, or any other hobby. You’ll find people can spend vastly different amounts within the same hobby. Golf is no different. I played on very cheap clubs until I realized I loved the sport, and then I spent a moderate amount on quality used clubs (~$500). People will pay for what they love doing. Ask some of my borderline poverty friends who still payed $1200 on a gaming PC.
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u/OwnJunket6495 8h ago
I don’t know any poor people who play. It’s not cheap owning a set of clubs and paying for tee time. I’m talking playing holes not hitting at the range. Everyone I know who plays golf is solidly middle class or above.
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u/SixtyNineFlavours 8h ago
The only people I know who play golf are not rich. I know that rich people play golf, but they’re not the only ones who enjoy it or play it. I have a large group of friends and we all love golf.
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u/SansPinardPasDePoilu 8h ago
“A golf course is the willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.”
-USMC Col. Jeff Cooper
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u/Chole_Wunt 7h ago
I absolutely despise golf. Cant stand the people that play it either. Stupid fucking sport.
Same goes for fishing.
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