Seriously, 15-inch hole golf is becoming a thing. Do you think golf is too difficult, too stuffy, too time-consuming? If so, changes could be brewing within the game that might have you rummaging around for your old clubs and your least fashionable clobber. In an attempt to boost flagging player numbers in the US, an alternative movement has sprung up involving dustbin lid-sized targets, mulligans and shorter rounds.
We've already seen foot golf, which involves booting a football around a modified course, but other attempts to attract a younger player base have included versions which allow players to tee up the ball for every shot, or throw balls out of the bunker.
In an attempt to combat over-long rounds, a punch-in punch-out time clock system will be tested at 30 courses across the US. Fees will be calculated based on time spent on the course, as opposed to whether players have completed 9 or 18 holes.
The most revolutionary of all these recent innovations is probably the one currently trumpeted by TaylorMade CEO Mark King. King is known as a serial innovator and iconoclast and is an unashamed supporter of the big-cup idea. The equipment giant has also launched the website HackGolf.org, which attempt to come up with ideas to make the game more accessible and playable by all.
In the next month, TaylorMade will subsidise the experimental installation of 15-inch cups at about 100 golf courses. An inaugural event in California was atrended by Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose
The special hole-cutting device costs about $250 and the new pins are expected to reduce the average time of a round from over four hours to three and a half. In particular, it would be ideal for corporate events and bad putters everywhere - King claims that the innovation should shave ten strokes off the average golfer's handicap.
“No one is trying to drive away the many millions of people who play traditional golf,” King said. “But what harm is there in offering an alternative? In five years I bet that 90 percent of golf facilities are having events with the 15-inch hole.”
Golf remains in the top ten of most-played sports in the US, but a serious decline in new golfers under the age of 35 has sparked this clamour for new ideas.
Of course, the movement has some vocal opponents within the game. “I don’t want to rig the game and cheapen it,” said double US Open champion Curtis Strange. “I don’t like any of that stuff. And it’s not going to happen either. It’s all talk.”
Personally, I would have to give the big-cup version a go before I could be be entirely convinced by it, but the idea of more six- or nine-hole games does appeal to me. Four hours of viscerally hating yourself is too much for one day. Do share your thoughts with us.
