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.""

Comments

...news for nerds..

[Anonymous Coward]

How did this get posted? Golf??!

Re:...news for nerds..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a lot like software. There's a large solution space but only a few valid solutions and a lot of traps. There's an enormous amount of rules, lots of tools that all look the same but aren't. The people dress poorly but are quite rich.

Re:Learning Golf While Young

[flyneye]

I have given much consideration to golf over the years. My experiences include; nearly having my windshield taken out driving down a city street and evolving my own golf game, played from my car, in which I wait till I see someone putting or driving and honk my car horn just in time to fuck up their shot.I went to a driving range once and put my back out of alignment on a bucket of balls. NO LOVE!

          It has occurred to me that the sissy ass game of golf neednt waste so much real estate on a dying form. Merely create a hybrid sport to bring the masses in and make the greenskeeper earn his damn money. I propose ACTION GOLF: No clubs, instead, you are equipped with a potato gun and a can of hairspray. Helmets will be worn, FORE! will be shouted into a bullhorn, previous to any shot. Any discrepancies in score or disagreements will result in a round of fire based on the paintball sport. This is now a game for Vikings, not old men! Putters will be reminded that the hole already exists and creating your own through gunfire doesnt count.
PLAY GOLF!

Re:Learning Golf While Young

[Stumbles]

Teaches self control? Tell that to Tiger Woods ex-wife.

Re:Nothing to do with hole size

[Pinky's Brain]

For a while it was a middle class game, for a middle class with lots of leisure time. The current remaining middle class works far more than the old middle class.

Golf is returning to being an upper class game ... but that means much less players and thus less courses.