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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: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday April 23 2014, @12:12AM
I think you hit the nail on the head.
As far as I had seen, golf was mostly an excuse for men to get somewhere in private, away from all distractions, to discuss business. It could be verified by each individual that the conversations they were having were private.
Golf has several things going against it. One, there is the hit of the economy on the middle class, which has severely impacted a lot of people with any "leisure time" to spend on a golf course. Another is the perception that golf is elitist, just as you point out, and in the event a company is doing poorly, it does not make for good press to see its leaders out putting a ball while their company is going down a dumpster.
My guess is that "hunting tours" are apt to replace golf as a venue for business discussions. One cannot be too sure, with today's technologies, that meeting places are not bugged. A party of individuals can still go to random places to have business discussions with a low likelihood of being eavesdropped upon. The golf course had been favored for that, but I believe it is being replaced not only for cost but also for the appearance of frivolous expense as times get tight.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]