Fore!

Working for a water company brings about a whole new type of conspiracy theory, delivered by free-thinking farmers with too much time on their hands. Too much time because they have little work to do due to the shortage of water. AT least this is my theory of why these allegations keep popping up. The general cry: Where'd the water go? We had all that mountain snow melt, where is it? Someone is keeping my water upstream. Boulder is stealing it. Plainly put (and in my opinion), water runs downhill. The further you are form the mountains, the less snowmelt affects your water supply. Not to mention most of the snowpack was gone by March and we've since been dealing with record highs. Not just record highs, the hottest temperatures for this area since they started recording temperatures! So what does this have to do with anything? Well, a well-meaning rancher/farmer was in here today decrying how Colorado has more golf courses per capita than any state, Florida included, and why were we wasting water on all those courses when her hay wasn't growing? Sounds like a mission to me....
Just who DOES have the most golf courses per capita? Please note that most of the following information comes from here: www.sportometrics.com, a site I picked not because I'm sure it's correct, but because it was the only site I could find with a list and pretty graphics.
Just which state has the most golf courses per capita? Florida definitely comes to mind. A few others claiming to be "it" include Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota (on many sites), Utah (though with some digging they say they're the biggest in the desert states), Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. (incidentally, both Ireland and New Zealand claim to have the most courses per capita in the world) According to sportometrics.com, the most courses can actually be found in that most unlikely of places, North Dakota. Boasting a proud 13.89 courses per 100,000 people (how many holes are in .89 courses?) we have a winner! (according to me and sportometrics anyway). Where do the rest of our claimants fall? In actuality, Florida is 15th in this list! Michigan tops out at 11th, Wisconsin a bit better at 8th, and Hawaii, Minnesota, Utah and Pennsylvania aren't even in the top 25! Neither is my own state of Colorado, so neener neener to the rancher/farmer lady.
After speaking with a co-worker, we decided in the end what REALLY matters is the amount of golf courses compared to the amount of square feet of water, which is really what it all comes down to when you're discussing hungry crops. But I think that's a bit harder of a project them I want to tackle... :oP