Option 2

Nick and I challenged the marginalized norms of the golf course by not paying to play and throwing a football on the property. We were there for almost a half hour and no one stopped us. We actually received friendly gestures from the golfers. This was actually slightly surprising, however, this course is more casual and relaxed than others. Also, the location of being close to Ping and right next to the bike path probably causes many people to walk on the property who are not there to play. I wasn't abel to draw much from the readings about this because I assume we should have been asked to leave. We did not pay and were not using it for its right intent. Mitchel would not have defined it as a public space but instead a pseudo-public space. However, we were treating it like a public space and nothing happened.

Planned Public Space

Website article explaining new design, funding, and costs

From observation, I could tell this site has been strategically planned. It is located right next to Ping, the bike path, and a freeway as shown by the pictures. This indicates a location that is visible and walkable for members of the OU community. The bunkers, fairways, and greens are built to specific specifications on the property. There were 9 holes with a flag in them. There is a shop where you go to pay to play or buy golf equipment. All of this indicates a pseudo-public space.

Representation of Space

Golf courses can be seen as a fairly simple, just some grass, some trees, some water, some sand, and a hole where a ball goes. However much of the public does not take into account the amount of work and preparation that goes into creating a golf course. Courses are typically designed by a specially trained architect and then the head greens keepers must have a strong background in agriculture/botany in order to know how to properly keep the grass well groomed. Many times the courses are manicured in the early morning before the first person tees off.

Like stated before people must pay in order to gain access to golf courses, therefore they want their golfing experience to be up to par. This often times means that the players will enforce rules/norms with other people playing in order to maintain the sanctity of the game. Some examples of this would be raking the sand after your ball goes in it, letting faster players play through, and repairing ball marks on the greens. However if there are no other players on the course to enforce these rules there is sometimes a course ranger to patrol the course looking to end any sources of hooliganism. What seems as a very simple game holds many deeper meanings within it that unless you are a casual player of the game you would be blind to it.

By Alan Miller

Place as "representational space"

Mitchell says that representational space is appropriated, lived space; space-in-use. This can also be referred to as how the space is actually used. Three ways in which the golf course is representational space are for golf outings, a place for students to commit acts of defiance, and just for golfing on a day to day basis.

Golf outings are a good way to raise money for a specific purpose. Usually what happens is teams of four sign up to play and pay an entry fee, most of the time it is around $60 a person. Each person from the team hits from the same spot. The team then chooses which of the four balls to use and then they all hit from that spot and the process is repeated. The course is full of these teams and the space is used like this in order to raise the money.

Students use the course as a place to drink and smoke marijuana. This obviously isn't an intent of the space itself, but it still happens. I have heard many stories from people I know who do this on a regular basis. The reason for this could be for the sole purpose of breaking rules and doing something a little risky. Since it is on the edge of campus, usually the people who use the space in this manner live in the dorms located beside the course.

Finally, the course is used for its actual intent. Students, faculty members, and people from the community can pay to play golf on the course. Right now the course stays relatively busy, especially in the evening when it isnt so hot. The space itself is used only for golfing and if someone were to use it for something else, many of the golfers would view that as impeding on those who pay to play.

Ohio University Golf Course as a "Representational Space"

The Ohio University Golf Course is a place that is used for the basic purpose of playing the game of golf. The users of the course are mainly Ohio University students and Alumni but is also used by others visiting the golf course. The users of the course support the purpose of the course by playing the game as the course is designed. Playing each hole in order of how the course is laid out. The course is a nine hole course, and par is 35. The activities include general recreation, golf tournaments, leagues, and private lessons. The course is also used for furthering the knowledge of those pursuing careers in sports management and other majors concerning the game of golf.
The golf course therefore serves a small amount of the university students, those interested in the game of golf. The public absent from this space are those who do not play golf, which is a majority of the college students. You can also make the argument that those absent are those who cannot afford the green fees. These fees are less for Ohio University students but there is still a ten dollar fee during the week and twenty dollars on the weekend. Plus, if you want to rent a cart its an additional six dollars. When thinking about what is absent, you can look at the course and see that there is an absents of population and the use of the space. For how vast the space of the course there are relatively few people using the land at a given time.

Rep of Space vs Rep Space

Representation of space was discussed as meaning how a place was designed/intended to be used, representational space is how the area is actually used. When looking at the golf course, we found that more than often, the use of the course coincide with the intended use of the designers/Ohio University. Because it is a space for a specific type of recreation, it is dominated by that activity (Frisbee golf too).

There are accounts of use outside of the intention, but they typically go on during the night, when the area is closed. It is known that students in and around S Green are breaking the course rules, as well as the dormitory rules by sneaking out to the dark course for a few cold ones or to enjoy other recreational substances. Another way of using the place other than as intended was comments from people we talked to that have used the course and seen people foraging for balls so as to not have to pay the extra money for a sleeve.

The outcome of the behavior that deviates from the intention of the university is a groundskeeper and security that keep people off the fairways unless they are properly using the space.

Golf Course as a Representation of Space

Although it is public, people have to pay to play there, even students ($10 for 9holes without a cart, and low as $200 per quarter membership). The space is built for a specific purpose: to play golf, and so isn't completely public as Mitchell would say an area should be, but we believe there's room for both types of space, as long as they are fair and assessable.

As we found out, the space is only to be used for golfing. The website at ohio.edu says the place is also used to conduct tournaments, compete with other teams, and use for fund raising golf outings. We went and observed people playing there, using the space as intended.