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In a Hole, Golf Courses Experiment With 15-inch Holes
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "According to the National Golf Foundation, golf has lost five million players in the last decade with 20 percent of the existing 25 million golfers apt to quit in the next few years. Now Bill Pennington writes that golf courses across the country are experimenting with 15 inch golf holes the size of pizzas to stop people from quitting the game. "We've got to stop scaring people away from golf by telling them that there is only one way to play the game and it includes these specific guidelines," says Ted Bishop, president of the PGA of America. "We've got to offer more forms of golf for people to try. We have to do something to get them into the fold, and then maybe they'll have this idea it's supposed to be fun." A 15-inch-hole event was held at the Reynolds Plantation resort last week featuring top professional golfers Sergio García and Justin Rose, the defending United States Open champion. "A 15-inch hole could help junior golfers, beginning golfers and older golfers score better, play faster and like golf more," says García, who shot a six-under-par 30 for nine holes in the exhibition. Another alternative is foot golf, in which players kick a soccer ball from the tee to an oversize hole, counting their kicks. Still it is no surprise that not everyone agrees with the burgeoning alternative movement to make golf more user-friendly. "I don't want to rig the game and cheapen it," says Curtis Strange, a two-time United States Open champion and an analyst for ESPN. "I don't like any of that stuff. And it's not going to happen either. It's all talk.""
How did this get posted? Golf??!
My Dad used to take me to play pitch-and-putt (nine short holes, played with a 9-iron and a putter). One day when I was 9, we were both having an awful round, and I said "Dad, this is a bloody frustrating game". He replied "Yup, that's why I gave it up in 1932". I got the point, and have never been back since.
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Maybe it is less about the size of the hole and more to do with the absurd amount of money and time is cost to play the sport? I had a few games once, the money I could probably afford, but I simply don't have the time to spend hours on a golf course every week...
Golf is about getting your balls into the hole in as few strokes as possible. It's as simple as that.
I'm not a golf guy, but I can appreciate that the original game is fine the way it is. Seriously, 15-inch holes aren't going to magically enable you to get a hole-in-one. The challenge of hitting the traditional hole is something I respect; making it feel like I have training wheels on to pander to me is just going to alienate me further. I think most prefer things tight, not loose. You have to feel like you've succeeded.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
Making an easy mode golf will surely bring people back to the expensive courses, like Reynolds Plantation resort! In fact, they should invent a throwing golf - Americans like throwing things - they could even use some sort of flattened plastic disc, to make it more aerodynamic. If only golf would be more innovative like that, people would flock to play golf!
Sarcasm aside, my friends and I never cared about how "hard" golf was. In fact, most of the charm of actually going out and playing was laughing about how bad we all were. We don't go back very often because most of us can think of 30 or 40 other things that we'd rather be doing for those 6 hour consecutive stretches on a weekend.
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Because "dumbing down the game" have worked SO well for Blizzard and World of Warcraft..
I'm being sarcastic.
grep pizza article_content && if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "News for nerds"; fi
Won't help much if the game is just boring to people and/or expensive. Now if you told everyone to wear protective body armor when going out on the green and start aiming at each other then maybe you'd get your numbers up.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Wonder why - the most expensive popular sport in existence is losing millions of players, right around the time that the income of the group most associated with playing golf is dipping dramatically...
Maybe if Sherlock were here he could figure out why?
I'm an avid sailor, and the same discussion is being had in the sport of sailing. The sport of sailing is in rapid decline, at least in the US. It's far less popular than it was 30 years ago. Most of the people who do it are baby boomers who will soon retire from it.
There is great consternation within the sport of sailing about what can be done to save it, but really, nothing can be done. The sport is not appropriate for the times.
It's not a matter of cost. Sports like golf, sailing, lawn bowling, and other sports which are in rapid decline can be done affordably. Sailing, for example, is cheaper than ever because more and more used sailboats are dumped on the market every year (fiberglass sailboats almost never wear out).
The pace of life has changed. That is the issue. Young people, who've been reared on dizzyingly fast-paced entertainment such as first-person shooter games, are not thrilled at the idea of racing at five miles per hour (or sometimes less) in a sailboat for four hours. Nor do they find it exciting to play shuffleboard or do golf. By the standards of today, those sports are boring.
Nothing should be done to make golf or sailing more interesting for younger people. It won't help to make golf holes bigger. The only way to make these sports more interesting is to make them drastically faster paced, which will ruin them for the people who enjoy them now. These sports should just accept unpopularity.
I can't find a link, so I'll summarize:
Char 1: whatcha doin'?
Char 2: Playing golf.
Char 1: What's the object of the game?
Char 2: Get this little white ball in that hole over there.
Char 1: [picks up ball, walks over to hole, drops it in hole] Stupid game.
15" holes seem pretty ridiculous, considering you still have to get to the green. Accurate drives and knowing how to deal with situational shots comprise at least half the difficulty of golf. Nobody takes a mulligan on a missed putt, they take them when they slice a shot onto the next fairway over or into a water hazard or whiff it entirely and launch a clump of divot instead of the ball.
But no one derides amateur softball players for not hitting 85 mph pitches or being able to throw out a runner at first with a bullet from 130' away. What might make golf more accessible is building smaller 9-hole courses heavy on par-threes with more forgiving hazards and flatter greens. Less of a time commitment, cheaper due to faster turnover... Change the name somewhat (Golf-lite? Softgolf?) so as to defuse objections from people who want to maintain “pure golf’s” identity as is.
I'm not sure that amateur radio has been dumbed down as much it moved from proficiency in something annoying to young people (Morse code, inhaling solder) to something annoying to older people (digital modes, software stacks) while keeping the level of brainwork involved about the same. I've since left the hobby, but when I was active in my local club, the old boys who ran the show didn't really care for discussion of new technology, since computers baffled them. They much rather would have talked about CW on a QRP transmitter that they soldered themselves (without really understanding how it works) from a QST article.
Just go play disc golf! Lots of fun, just as much exercise, and free (in most locations) to play. Also, *WAY* cheaper to get into than buying or renting clubs!
I consider games like golf and chess skills rather than sports. To me, sports rely more on athletic factors like speed and strength. Sports competitions are more likely to be divided by sexes (chess shouldn't be) and/or weight classes. Skills competitions shouldn't require divisions by sex or size.
It's a blurry line I have drawn for myself but, right or wrong, that is how I feel about it. I should probably duck now.
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It's more likely the result of fees that are routinely over $100. And to really enjpy the game (be good enough not not get pissed all the time) you need to play at least three times a week.
Pretty pricey.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I've been riding a bike for more than 30 years...
Since before it was cool? No doubt on a bike brand that we probably wouldn't have heard of?
...and I can't tell how how different it looks at the parking lot today - middle-aged men, 20lbs or more overweight, showing up in $100,000 cars with $25,000 bikes...
Leaving aside for a moment the complaints about people spending more money on their toys than you've spent on your car/house/whatever, are you seriously complaining that the middle-aged men with beer bellies are actually getting out and doing something active? Even if they're not very good at it? (And if they aren't, how are they going to get better at it, except through practice?)
It's easy enough to flip this around: "After that last visit to the doctor, I decided I'd rather spend some money on a nice bike than on cardiologists and ICU bills. But whenever I try to go out on it, I get run off the trail by jerks who act like anyone doing less than 25mph on the flats deserves to be roadkill. At least on the weekly rides most of the folks are supportive, and willing to help out beginners. Sure, there's this one guy who shows up a few times a year and spends most of his time shaking his head at us and sighing theatrically, but I've found that the best thing to do is ignore him..."
Perhaps increasing wealth inequality means that people have less disposable income and choose to spend their money elsewhere than golf?
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15 mm ought to do it. Then we can get 100% participation in the "existing 25 million golfers apt to quit in the next few years".
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Never been known to fail..."