Why Desert Golf Courses Are A Thing - Cheddar Explains
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Coachella Valley is known as a mecca of golf - in fact, it’s home to over 120 golf courses! But golf originated in Scotland - a country that sees more rain and gloom than sun. It’s no secret golf courses require tons of water to keep operating - so how do so many exist in an area that only gets around 3 inches of rain a year?
Further reading:
Historic UK
www.historic-u....
Palm Springs Preservation Foundation
www.pspreserva...
Tourism Economics
cagolf.org/wp-...
AP
apnews.com/art...
KESQ Newschannel 3 (ABC)
kesq.com/news/...
CVWD
www.cvwd.org/15....
CVWD
ca-coachellavw...
Desert Sun
www.desertsun....
LA Times
www.latimes.co...
AP News
apnews.com/art...
CNN
www.cnn.com/20...
GCM
www.gcmonline....
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Here in Palm Springs the golf course around my neighborhood went bust due to rising water cost. Oh my goodness but people freaked out, crying about lost home values blah blah blah. I, for one, am pleased to have the area return to native vegetation. The desert landscape is beautiful. I don't understand why people move to the desert only to make it look like Ireland. Enjoy the natural beauty.
@@julm7744 Pools don't have a lot of surface area/volume.
Rich ppl problems 🙄
Isn't there an over saturation when there's too many golf courses to how many golfers that want to golf there?
fight on
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯
Who knew overpopulating a desert and building hundreds of green golf courses with huge housing developments with lush lawns would completely run the West/Midwest out of water
Not the Midwest. But yes
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯
Wait long enough and the ocean will overtake it.
don't forget that they add "magic Water" to the amount that they have since none of the states there want to admit that they cannot continue to grow due to hard water caps, and that this is a major contention with mexico because by the time the colorado river gets to them its basically drained dry
@FoxyPinkGirl ? Why do you think the Colorado is running out of water?
You know what could save more than the 20% of water?
Not having hundreds of golf courses in the desert
i think just shutting them down will lead to a net loss, tourist provide valuable revenue to the local economy
Could take it one step further and not have water thirsty grass on our yards and lawns. Stop irrigating a useless crop.
@@Burnlit1337 Las Vegas did that I think
It would not save 20% of water. Golf courses don't use even close to that much water.
@@geralferald I meant 20% more than what the golf courses claim to be saving now. Obviously golf courses do not use 20% of all water available
Surely if water prices scaled greater with the amount of water used, it would solve much of the problem by putting golf courses out of business or forcing them to be more sustainable
Great!
Supply and demand can solve a lot of our natural resource problems.
@@michaelblasius7705 I recommend you look at fisheries, Atlantic cod got Obliterated. “Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery” 30 years later still in recovery mode maybe still Decades away.
Unfortunately, most businesses pay lower rates than residential.
the comment right below yours: "Here in Palm Springs the golf course around my neighborhood went bust due to rising water cost. Oh my goodness but people freaked out, crying about lost home values blah blah blah. I, for one, am pleased to have the area return to native vegetation. The desert landscape is beautiful. I don't understand why people move to the desert only to make it look like Ireland. Enjoy the natural beauty.
I've been playing golf since I was 14, over 20 years, and I find desert golf course reprehensibly irresponsible.
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯
Even if you save as much water as possible without killing the grass, that grass should not be there in the first place.
I live in the valley, one thing i have to mention is that Disney is planning on building a resort in rancho mirage with a 34 acre pool! It really feels like businesses like golf resorts who bring in capital get priority over the environment and water resources which really sucks because we live in the desert and we have a HUGE DROUGHT. People have this mindset here where they believe as long is there is money to be made everything will be fine and there is always more water to go around.
Yes. That's in Rancho Mirage where 💰💰💰💵💵💵 rules. But with the impending housing crash, we'll see what happens with that project.
@@JosephStJames2000 oh god what was Disney thinking. They tried this housing community thing once and it failed miserably. I didn’t even know about the upcoming housing crash.
i was hoping you meant a new thing of golf courses made with sand, seeing as how theyre just golf courses in the dessert the answer is rich people. its a terrible thing that should not be allowed
I’m building a mini golf course near Joshua tree on just the natural desert landscape using found junk and my own labor. This is the way to do desert golf.
Desert golf courses are good joints for tourneys. Golfers wish the Masters was held at such place as long as it is a season other than summer when they close due to the extreme heat that yields abundant sweatiness.⛳
fuck no they shouldn't exist. non potable water can become potable with the right plant involved. if they want to exist fine; but tax their water consumption heavily with a rising drynamic rate that is also tied to drought conditions. they will reconsider when its 15 bucks a gallon to water.
If they got rid of all desert golf courses then there would be a mass exodus of people. Especially rich people which would obliterate the local economy. I think you're underestimating how important golf is to a lot of people.
@@AC-im4hi I dont give a shit about a local economy that shouldn't exist in the first place. its a testament to mans ignorance. they ALL need to move.
A little too friendly towards California and golf courses and especially farmers. A lot of the issues here have to due with how the Colorado river water was distributed, how the use it or lose it structure pushes wasteful crops, and golf courses that dont use grey water at this point are outright evil. People in Las Vegas, Tucson, and other desert towns are doing alright and take measures to restrict water usage and have seriously curbed usage meanwhile larger population centers like Phoenix and California valley people have made little to no adjustments and continue to grow lawns and water heavy plants.
Yes, the water is distributed based on historical claims. California called dibs first so has to make changes last. And it shows.
Phoenix uses less water than it did 20 years ago with twice as many people
You can tell who isn't from California when all they think of when they hear the word Coachella is a crazy music festival.
I don’t like the way they speak about aquifers in this video and the way they compare them to reusable water bottles aquifers are not refilled so easily and can take thousands of years to replenish sometimes In many cases once the water runs out in the aquifer it runs out if not for the replenishing of rainwater that just so happens to seep into the ground
Unless you do actually dig a canal from an overused water source to fill it, like they did. So right now it is basically another colorado reservoir except that since it's harder to measure how much is in there, the government finds it a bit harder to regulate how much comes out.
Seems more like an advertisement on golf course or an excuse to continue using water on golf courses
Just drying out the Colorado River and the aquifers and leaving the Mexicali area in Mexico without water in the river and a minor quantity in the canal.
(and if you want you can count the ecological disaster of the Colorado river delta in the Alto Gulf of California)
There are "Non-Potable Water" warning signs everywhere you look in my neighborhood. It's a way to circulate wastewater back into the environment.
Hi Cheddar, could you consider including metric equivalents for your non-imperial viewers? I have no idea what 90 million gallons are in liters.
You are watching this on your pc or phone. Either look it up or remember how to exchange units. And i am European so non imperial myself.
@@RK-cj4oc It's a reasonable request for them to include the standardized units from the rest of the world
@@Marsk1tty No its not. Its a US website, a US channel and it uses US units. You know all of this. So adapt and learn it yourself instead of expecting others to adapt to you.
@@julm7744 " not raise you well" so telling someone why their request is nonsense is not respectfull? So if i disagree with what you think its not okay?
Maybe your parents should have raised you in the reall world. There is no single sentence thats not respectfull untill i wrote to you.
It's not Cheddar's fault, we Americans can't seem to want to change over to metric, like every other sensible nation have done. We've 'tried' and failed.
Soooo rich people wasting resources like normal? About right.
Let’s not forget the water-intense almond industry of California.
I can do without almonds and no longer buy them
@@GreenAppelPie but all these paleo princesses want almond milk
I still remember seeing golf courses using sprinklers even while it was raining, or had rained and crap like that, just stupid.
We just had 6"+ of rain by me last week in 24hrs, drive to work only to see some rich idiot with his sprinklers on.....
Its pretty stupid because they can play golf on the Desert Sand and rock. It would make a more unique Course instead of being exactly the same as all the others
Yeah, let's use the water for golf courses instead of growing food... Even the reclaimed water can be used for irrigating certain food crops, and I'm sure we could find many other uses for it. But since it's for rich people they find excuses.
The Silver Crested Snowbird requires lush green desert golf courses to thrive. Lost of habitat has caused many species to decline.
ya............ but it's still using water from Colorado river .... which will basically be history if we don't make changes to how we distribute water now.
True, I actually don't understand this video. The basic of research of it. What is the goal of it? It is presented as if the Colorado's re-orientation will end up having this river being the tab of the aquafer, an aquafer which is kind of presented as the natural tab for the lucky golfers of this -in some weird or entitled ways- presented as a some kind of water-privileged region. Hugh? The music and narration are also all light and sun.
Limitless sand traps !!
Disney is building a resort w a man made beach/lagoon in Rancho Mirage, about 15 min south of Palm Springs
Nothing different than growing Alfalfa in the desert 🏜. What happens if they can’t recharge the Aquifer? Definitely not get getting recharged from the rain 🌧
2:04 What are the dimensions of an Olympic size swimming pool?
It's like they can't have an automatic shutoff valve if it goes over an daily allowed amount... especially for larger customers.
I also like ski slopes in the desert
Does it say anywhere that golf MUST ONLY be played on lush green grass?
I find golf courses in a desert to be weird and unnecessary. However, I don't know if I missed it in the video, where would the water used on the golf courses go instead? There's less and less water that's their trouble but who else with access to the water could be in more need to use it?
“Guys we have a drought! The Hoover Dam will run dry if we won’t do anything to stop it! Come on governors of the American West, let’s go play a round of golf to settle who gets what.”
All golf courses, everywhere, are a waste of valuable resources whether the water or even the swathes of land they occupy which could see better usage.
Come'On!!!! Thats a complete inversion of Values. Water should sustain life, not Gamimg... Just change the game... Use distinctive colors for the ball and adapt the tools somehow to hit the ball on sand. It won't be Golf as we know... for sure. But it meets the main purpose: "Change the Game"!! Humans will have to adapt guys... That's a no brainer
6:26 Why did you use the whole US average instead of just the southwest? Seems that would be better suited for the video.
I don't understand why they don't just use astroturf. Modern synthetic grass is pretty dang close to the real thing.
It gets even more asinine out in the Coachella Valley as surf clubs are being planned in cities like Thermal and La Quinta amidst droughts and record high temperatures.
If I had my way I would shut everyone of those down
the people that use them can just as easy go to a course that is in a naturally green area
just a bunch of spoiled rich kids
No one wants to say it: ban golf courses in the desert. Golf grasses consume the most water to grow the least. In a desert. It’s literally an invasive species of grass-it harms the local ecology via overconsumption of a resource.
how much is a fahrenheit?
Golf course greens, and lawns for that matter, are an absurd use of water. And I'm actually not someone big on water conservation. I generally think we should solve our water problems in other ways, and I think it's appalling asking people to skimp on their personal, inside-the-home use of water...but dumping it onto golf courses, greens, lawns, and grass is absolutely disgusting. People and animals need water for their own use, and food agriculture is valid, but using it grow turf/grass is beyond dumb. Why can't golf courses, and people who want green lawns, use synthetic AstroTurf?
Not big on water conservation, despite the facts that these areas are running out of water
You can't play golf on turf. It doesn't work.
@@AC-im4hi Ahh, good to know
@@AC-im4hi you would also melt
That’s the Coachella Valley in the beginning , not Palm Springs
Where was bro putting at 4:05
Golf course: ima do a new location on a desert
Fake grass: are you gonna use me? :D
*golf course stares machiavellically*
Fake Grass: are you?.... ._.
0:42 really.. We have to start with when golf FIRST started?
Might be a nightmare with the sand storms and drought. Good luck.
Maybe the states should have a limited number of course licenses. As a course closes, a license can be transferred
Why is golfing a thing in general?
You have to be rich to understand
Too much free time, not enough hobbies.
@@OpoOnTheGo well really golf is how the rich people meet & make deals because the golf ⛳ course can't be bugged
@@bloodymary3008 that’s what you think.
everyone wants to be scottish because we are smart and incredibly beautiful.
Abolish👏 golf👏 courses👏
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯
They should replace the grass with astroturf made from recycled plastic bottles.
Clearly you’ve never been on Astro Turf on a hot summer day, it’s not a pleasant experience
Because rich people and capitalism
If people are going to be insane enough to keep on moving to places with no water, why not compound that insanity with ultra-thirsty industries like semi-conducters and golf tourism?
And if Palm Springs is relying that heavily on their aquifer, I imagine they will fall into a sinkhole during my lifetime.
The extreme of Capitalism, Decadence, Greeed it's deadly for a reason.
Leave it to California to spend State Tax Payer dollars and resources to help water their golf courses. The East Coast/East Southern residents are gonna be screwed when these people dry up all the natural resources they have and come running across the country.
Desert golf courses absolutely should NOT exist. They should be dismantled. Or they should find an alternative desert plant to replace their greens, or a different surface to play on.
Because rich people don’t care about costs, they want their boring status games within reach no matter where they live
I never got this dumb idea of having sporting areas in arrid places where water is scarce. Golfing should have stayed east of the Mississippi to be honest. If anything, making them into public parks for regular people to use would be great. Could always make them into natural parks one can hike in.
Pump the aquifer that took millions of years to accumulate. What could go wrong?
yall did a video TWO years ago about why the west is running out of water
How many people find an "Olympic-sized swimming pool" to a useful metric for water? I don't know that I've ever even seen an OSSP.
That's mean its shitton of water
Mega drought? Maybe use water more efficient
ban golf courses
This is why there is no water in the hoover dam
Cheddar music choice is odd... doesnt match the tone of the video.
06:00 Did you mean New Mexico?
"Stupid-a fucking game!"
-Furio Giunta
They make people use artificial turf for their yards but not for the golf courses
Until they stop watering golf courses I don't want them harping on homeowners to conserve water
Sometimes I wish that Americans weren’t so obsessed with grass. It really isn’t that great if you aren’t a cow
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Golf courses are fucking atrocious
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯
Almonds use more water than all the people in california
do you eat almonds. if so stop right away
That dude talking about water conservation looks like he was drained of all water in his body.
How funny that almost all of these golf courses are serviced by the Colorado river and it’s dams and lakes. 🤫
I usually hit off the hard pan anyways
A stupid pointless fucking game. No city needs a golf course, but one is more than enough. Be responsible.
But the average homeowner isnt allowed real grass anymore, instead replacing with artificial turf and there is now a limit on swimming pool sizes in LV, but lets not take a drop of water from the golf courses.
I lived in Mesquite, NV for 10 years.
Golf course water flowing in the gutter.
SHUT THEM DOWN. It will have an economic impact until things return to something sustainable, but it needs to happen.
I remember driving by a golf course in AZ years ago. It was barren desert and then wham, instant lush green. Golf courses in deserts are EVIL. There shouldn't be a single one, yet I remember hearing that AZ has more golf courses per capita than anywhere else. Golf is already a rich people sport. Fine, do your rich people thing. But do it where it makes sense, otherwise you're just doing what rich people do and taking the "if I can afford it, I should do it" approach.
Where dose the water go? The water that goes into the sky? Where dose that tend to fall? Is it the great Lakes? I feel like they flood the more the more the West dries up.
No they don't flood because the west wastes water. you "feel like they flood" is completely in your imagination, we have Nestle draining trillions of gallons into their bottled water. There are news reports from over a decade ago about how they pay $100 dollars a year for water rights to make billions off the sales. our floods come from poor drain management in specific spots as the water moves down within a day or less and typically only affect a few tiny areas at the bottom of the hill. Detroit I-94 flood a couple years ago was due to lockdowns causing maintenance to be ignored, leaving blockages over drains. Michigan was mostly swamp 200 years ago. many of those swamps were transformed into muck farms growing onions or potatoes. Maybe imagine less and watch documentaries more.
@@bartistclord1916 you think I just feel like the great Lakes are in flood? They have been since 2017, and alot of beaches and infrastructure was destroyed by the higher lakes. I'm on Eire myself. It's only the water that goes into the sky that I'm interested in, was watching weather map timelapses and it really looks like the water all falls here.
I get my water from the Monochromeado River...
Rich people need to get away from poor people problems. You know how expensive a country club membership is?!?!?
Land value tax will take care of golf courses
because rich people
clearly everyone else should pay for a pipeline from the Mississippi to continue watering those golf courses in the desert, whatever you do, don't live where the water is. Also to grow Alfalfa in the desert, since it would be tragic to farm it where water is plentiful.
Scotland should sue for copyright.
These golf courses are in a natural desert setting. That makes them not able to have trees in most cases. The lack of rain makes them not able to have the types of trees that golf courses such as Augusta National.
The grass situation is also very unique compared to other types of golf courses.
The only places where there is grass is the tee box, fairways, and the putting green at most desert golf courses. Any desert course that has grass in the rough is really going above and beyond to do that. In most cases, they will only have rough ground that is very dry where there should be rough.
Desert golf courses are beautiful and should definitely exist
Lmao we are all screwed
After visiting desert states,
*W.T.F. Y’all….*
Seriously, how is every job not about making an oasis for every population center, because the heat is indescribable if you haven’t experienced
why dont the invent desert golf? with a special ball for dry sandy dirt...
I don't believe desert golf courses are a best use of water. How many people could live from this water if it were treated for human consumption? Golf courses keep watering as the poor go without. It's dystopian. The average European uses 20,000 gallons a year. Divide 9 million by 20 thousand is 4,500 people who could live on that water.
Don't desert golf courses use a different type of grass? Isn't there grasses that use less water?
They can always use recycled materials instead of grass ?? If you can afford to pay for golf then you can pay higher taxes to pay for those that can’t find clean water
Fun fact, many of the courses are also lined with clay tiles…they’re big clay pots
Good.
shut these all down, what a waste of necessary water
cut off the Colorado River water
Golf, a game played by rich men with little balls...🤪
Giant GATORs and Reptiles show Up at Golf Courses in Florida from Miami to Jacksonville🤯