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The NYT reports that golf courses across the country are experimenting with 15 inch golf holes the size of pizzas to stop people from quitting the game amid reports that 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. "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 Garcia 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 Garcia, 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."
(Score: 1) by tierack on Tuesday April 22 2014, @06:51PM
Many of those ideas are currently being used amateur fields all across the country! Parks don't all have regulation basketball courts or soccer fields. Football is played every day in parks where hitting is illegal, and they're not running even close to 100-yards for a touchdown. At friendly games of baseball, you can hear batters telling the pitcher how to pitch, increasing their chances of hitting a home run on a field that is remarkably smaller than Yankee Stadium.
None of those changes are about making "everyone a winner". They're about lowering the difficultly level so that more people have the chance to enjoy the essential game. Those who want a greater challenge always have rungs up the ladder to climb.
(Score: 2) by weeds on Tuesday April 22 2014, @07:50PM
That is a good point and I went kind of around it. Certainly it is a matter of loss of income.
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]
(Score: 2) by weeds on Tuesday April 22 2014, @08:01PM
Well done. I was thinking of the top level game. Since they had a quote from a pro golfer in there I jumped to pro sports. Of course the article was talking about amateur players.
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]