You've Got to be Kidding

Making life greener for the troops
via Baynews 9
Saturday, July 30, 2005

Thanks to a St. Petersburg company, the Iraqi desert is about to get a little greener.

Tour Links is sending portable putting greens to golf enthusiasts serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The five-hole portable green looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and it could solve the mystery about how to keep troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan entertained.

Tour Links is a Pinellas County company that makes portable putting greens, allowing anybody to build a putting green wherever they want.

Even on a military base in the Middle East.

Tour Links President Dave Barlow is working with the Army and the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) tour to send the putting equipment overseas.

"That's so the soldiers can receive the greens, put them together and they have the added value of having their own golf course at their base in the middle of the desert," Barlow said.

Barlow said the company has sent 10 units so far, with another 10 on the way. It's about $20,000 worth of equipment, with the PGA pitching in golf clubs and balls. Barlow hopes to expand the program in the future.

"These guys are going to be there for a long time, so our goal is to keep outfitting them as long as they want them," Barlow said.

Barlow hopes the greens will help soldiers fight boredom and get in some good swings during their down time.

"I feel great about the fact while they're there, they have a little bit of home with them," Barlow said.

This is beyond pathetic. We're close to 1800 dead soldiers and stuck in the middle of a civil war and this is how we "support the troops"?