Decisions made on golf courses hurting the environment

There was a lot of recent talk about how spot fish haven't come inshore for recreational fishing. Some of the reasons were that the ocean temperature isn't right, there aren't many spot left to begin with, or that the water is too dirty. That makes a lot of sense, considering the big brown blobs I've seen floating down the incoming tide on a high mission to find land and the marsh for cleansing.

But no one never mentions the amount of pesticides flowing off the fairways from golf courses into the local tributaries and the Intracoastal Waterway. This may be a crucible subject here for the economy, but the people's health has some priority here. Never mind the fisherman's and poor boater's health.

There used to be a lot of birds around those weed marshes. Now there's hardly any. And the ponds! There's few birds, and there's not many turtles that don't have a load of algae on their shells.

One course's ponds were so polluted a few years back that the algae looked like a green carpet laid from edge to edge.

Well, are there any organic golf courses? Or is the competition so great for playable turf and pristine greens that natural weed and fungus inhibitors escape a management plan?

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Decisions made on golf courses hurting the environment."