Art Grimes is 78 years old. At this point in his life, he doesn’t ask for much nor does he need much, except the game of golf.
“To me, it’s a way of life,” Grimes said. “I want to play golf. I want to die on a golf course if I have to.”
Along with several hundred senior golfers that play the LSU golf course every Tuesday and Thursday, Grimes is troubled by recent rumors that the LSU golf course may shut down in the coming months.
“When I went home and I started thinking about this and I said, ‘Where am I going to play? Where are we going to play? Not me, but where are we gonna play?’”
“My only eagle is on this golf course,” said Frank Fonteneau, a regular at the course.
Assistant Director of Facility Services Tammy Millican said in updating its campus master plan for 2016, LSU is forced to assess the golf course’s value.
“It’s 127 acres so certainly there are things we could do with it,” Millican said. “I heard one rumor that we were building a library there. But the truth is, at this point, we don’t really know what is going to be happening at that space.”
For most golfers, finding the green is the hardest part of the game. But in Baton Rouge it could be finding a reliable public course if LSU’s facility closes down.
“It’s really hard to find a reliable range in this area,” 2013 LSU alumnus Mason Dupre said. “To take this option away from students is almost to take away the game of golf to the college experience at LSU.”
It’s been four weeks since LSU’s review team first met, but Millican said a deadline for a decision has not been made.
“I’m not gonna quit until somebody tells me, ‘No, you can’t play here anymore.’ To come out here, where the grass is green, and you never know how you’re going to play, good or bad…Even if we played lousy on Tuesday, sure as heck, you’re going to come out Thursday.”
For now he cherishes every bad swing, every double bogey, every moment that he can.