Letter to the edittor: Hillcrest’s critics are being oversensitive to faults

I’ve spent so many enjoyable hours on Hillcrest Municipal Golf Course and for years the buzz from my group has been “ain’t it beautiful.” When I read about some being appalled and embarrassed at the condition of Hillcrest I had to wonder if there was another Hillcrest course in the area that had escaped my numerous bogeys and errant shots.

Politics has some severe dividing lines these days and I notice, so often, that Hillcrest is subject to the same division of separation. Mark Twain said that it was easy to find fault if one has that disposition. There was once a man who complained that a shipment of coal had too many prehistoric toads in it.

Hillcrest is not some slumbering tract of land. It has problems: unruly grasses, volunteer trees, pipe leaks, dry weather, wet weather, North Dakota wind, hard to maintain sand traps, animals that rip, slash, and root, and a dozen other assaults that I don’t know about. If there are a few rough edges, so be it. That’s always been part of the game.

Must the course be some pristine layout that appeals to some hot-house plants who faint at the sight of a dandelion? The people who work Hillcrest do their best at maintaining the course. It’s a tough job, but of course the maintainers are only working there for the big money.

For those who take words too seriously, the money part was a jest.

I hear compliments about Hillcrest and I give compliments to a wonderful golf course that has provided much fun for so many years. I give thanks that there are people who willing to work at Hillcrest so that I and friends can play. I still get little guilt trips when I see guys digging up a sewer line so that I can play through.

I read that “teams, players, coaches and spectators were appalled at the condition of the course,” which usually means one or two emails of complaint. I think that “appalled” was the same word a man used when he said with some disgust that the water at the dam was wet and, not only that, there was sand all over the beach.

Bruce Berg

Jamestown

Tags: opinion, letters, golf