The United States Golf Association's new slogan, "Brown is the new green," ought to resonate for those in the golf course business.

For many of them locally and elsewhere, heeding that message could make the difference between operating at a loss and actually making a profit. For some, it could tip the balance between having a successful business and facing bankruptcy.

Golfers have become a spoiled lot over the years as courses catered to the whims of membership and greens fee players by trying to outdo each other with plush fairways, glass-smooth greens and manicured tee boxes and sand bunkers. Even the rough had to be orchestrated. Every golf course was expected to look like a picture of the Garden of Eden. Or at least a version of Augusta National, the home of the Masters.

The economic crisis our country faces is as evident in the golf business as in any aspect of the problem. The spiraling costs of fertilizer, pesticides, equipment and labor have crippled the industry. In the Sandhills, as in much of the country, a year of rainy weather and an unrelenting winter have combined to curtail play.

A Recipe for Trouble

Add these factors together, along with a declining membership at many clubs, and the sum is too much spending and not enough income. That's a failing combination.

Due to good management that includes across-the-board cost-cutting methods, most of the courses in our area appear to be able to weather the perfect storm that nature and a plunging economic climate have created. But even if they survive, the healing process is going to take years.

So along comes the USGA, pledging to do its part in helping to make golfers realize that every blade of grass and every grain of sand do not have to be perfectly colored or in place to create good golf courses.

"Brown is the new green." And therein lays cause for hope. New USGA President Jim Hyler, a resident of Raleigh and a man who unquestionably loves the game of golf, has pledged that the organization will focus as never before on helping golf courses overcome some of their most pressing obstacles to operating at a profit.

Hyler feels strongly that courses must cut back on maintenance costs. And he thinks this can be accomplished to some degree if courses will adopt characteristics of U.S. Open host courses.

This includes allowing courses to become firmer, which means less grass, which means less fertilizing, mowing and water consumption. Which all adds up to less manpower.

No. 2 Takes the Lead

Pinehurst No. 2, universally recognized as one of the world's great golf courses, is already taking steps to conserve in the above areas. The Donald Ross masterpiece is replacing some mown areas of rough with the old wiregrass. This will lower the costs of labor and save on water, fertilizer and pesticide needed to grow healthy grass.

Other courses in the Sandhills will no doubt follow suit. Hyland Golf Club has already switched its bentgrass greens to the new strain of Bermuda that requires less maintenance during the summer and practically eliminates mowing in the winter.

Carolina Trace, a private two-course complex in Sanford, is planning on switching its greens to the new grass in the upcoming months.

If courses and their members adopt this new philosophy, brown can mean more green in the cash register.