Today, where the grass is always greener. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the
machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose
ingenuity created them. What sport uses the world's largest
maintained playing field? That would be golf. A typical course
covers more area than 100 football fields, though only about
half of that is manicured grass. Golf courses provide pleasant
green space, as housing developers are all too aware. But the
voracious need for weed killers, pesticides, fertilizers, and
water puts golf courses squarely in the sights of
environmentalists. Today's picture perfect courses are a far cry
from the grassy dunes of Scotland where the game originated.
Early course maintenance was performed by grazing animals who,
together with sea birds, also provided natural fertilizer. The
demand for near flawless courses grew with changes in
technology. By the end of the twentieth century, course design
wasn't so much about respecting nature as it was