Pictured (left to right) are Karen Snowden-Jones, Jan Griffin, and Carol Delk.
Gail Schroeder
Our SunBird Golfing Niners continue to golf, but our numbers are dwindling due to many returning to their home states for the summer. We will miss them. There are some positives for those of us who live in SunBird year-round: It is easier to get Tee times, the traffic is lighter, and service in the SunBird Restaurant is much faster. So, we will enjoy those benefits and look forward to golfing with our old friends in the fall. You don’t have to be a member of the Niners to golf with us this summer, so if you would like to golf anytime this summer, a signup sheet is posted each week in the hallway bulletin board near the Golf Pro Shop entrance. Golf is so much fun, and it has been around longer than you may know.
Per Wikipedia, golf was first played in the 15th century in the Kingdom of Scotland. The Old Course at St. Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland, UK, is the oldest golf course in the world. Archbishop Hamilton’s Charter in 1552 is the earliest documentary evidence that allowed the people of St. Andrews to play golf on the Links.
Golf continues to be very popular in Scotland. One reason why it is so popular in Scotland is because it is not purely a daytime activity. Many of Scotland’s golf courses are lighted, so they can be enjoyed in the evenings as well, even after the sun goes down. Wikipedia claims Scotland has more courses per head of population than anywhere else in the world. I did some internet searching and found that the math doesn’t seem to support that.
In 2019 the population of Scotland was 5,454,000 with 550 golf courses.
In 2019 the population of the United States was 328,239,523 with 15,372 golf courses.
Regardless of who has the most courses, many people love to golf, and I believe the sport will be around as long as there are people on earth. For our little corner of the world, let’s do our part to keep our golf course in good repair so we can enjoy it in our lifetime.