This statement by the Farm Equipment Association of Minnesota and South Dakota is a great reminder of reality: “Despite All Our Accomplishments We Owe Our Existence To A Six-Inch Layer Of Topsoil And The Fact It Rains”

It’s true… and most of us take it for granted. In fact, I think we even take the concept of healthy soil for granted. You won’t have a healthy garden unless you have healthy soil. You can’t fix the flowers with plastic surgery. Probably applies to humans too.

We get too caught up in fixing things on a surface level instead of getting at the root of things. You can definitely see it at a golf course. The soil needs to be fed and cultivated. If it’s ignored for very long… you’ll have a dead golf course.

Same with the culture of a golf course. If it’s not fed and watered… the flowers die and the weeds take over.

Obviously, this pertains to countries. Most countries were agricultural before the industrial revolution. My speech is that we need both – agriculture and industry. Small towns and cities.

On the golf course, we use chemicals – not everything is natural. And yesterday, we just repaved the circle cart-path on #2 tee box. Some people walk – some use golf carts.

I just read something that said rural people are most concerned about liberty, and that city people are most concerned about equality.

They’re both valid concerns. The agricultural mindset would probably be more conservative – trying to conserve the earth. The city mindset would probably be more progressive – trying to invent new products with industry and technology. Again, we need both. We can’t get stuck in the past, and we can’t poison the soil. We need a balance.

I would like to see a PGA Tournament where they use wooden woods and blade irons and balata balls. But I also appreciate the modern equipment.

You hear every day about how divided our society is. I think the divide is fundamentally on this line. Of course, manipulators have confused the issues and thus have created more lines. But I think it basically comes back to this.

Remember that Joni Mitchell song “Pave Paradise and Put-up a Parking Lot?” Well, the past wasn’t Utopia, but the race to Utopia is also not living in reality.

And, like most things… we need clarity… and living reality… and balance.

We can’t race ahead to Utopia without poisoning the world. And we can’t put on the brakes and live in the past.

We need to keep finding balance. And what better way to do it than on and at a golf course.