As the statewide golf community prepares to cope with the twin onslaughts of drought and a bill that proposes to chop 22% of California’s golf courses into residential developments (AB 672 – Garcia; D-Bell Gardens), we’d like to take a moment to put what will necessarily be some very tactical short-term responses into an overarching strategy capable of getting beyond tactical reaction toward strategic proactivity.

Virtually every major newspaper in California carried a front-page story last week about Californians having responded to Governor Newsom’s call for 15% voluntary water cutbacks by cutting back a paltry 1.8%.

At risk of hammering away at what you likely already know, here is how California’s major reservoirs stood as of midnight August 8.

Too much has been made of Franklin Roosevelt’s 1943 speech in which he coined the phrase repeated incessantly by historians and essayists ever since – “Dr. New Deal has given way to Dr. Win the War.”

We don’t cite this letter to boil your blood but to remind you that it is indicative of what a vast majority of the state’s population thinks about golf in general and its use of water in specific.

Last week two of the world’s biggest oil companies suffered significant defeats on the same day.

The LA County Department of Public Health amended its “Safer at Home” Tier order, the county’s “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order, and the county’s “Re-opening Restaurants” order, all of which apply to golf club/course functions that are not exclusive to golf courses.

As we reported Monday, the State of California issued a massive overhaul of “Outdoor and Indoor Youth and Adult Recreational Sports” protocols last Friday, effective this Friday (2/26). We noted that with respect to golf in even the “Purple Tier” counties, much of what has been proscribed can now be permitted, particularly with respect to high school competitive golf and certain adult competitive activities.

As all are now aware, Congress has passed a $900 billion relief bill.