I remember hearing about the CEO of Taylormade a few months ago and his plan to have an alternate form of golf with 15 inch holes. I thought, of course, that it was a terrible idea, everybody would agree with me, and that would be the end of it. But no, it's still around, and even worse, I think it's catching on. Apparently they just had a tournament featuring the gigantic holes I just can't conceive that any reasonable person would consider this a reasonable idea, but since it seems like it's catching on, let's talk about it.
It's no secret that golf is not doing well right now. Ever since the recession in 2008, course closings have outpaced course openings. I believe last year about 140 courses closed while only 13 opened in the United States. According to the above article, there are 20% fewer golfers now then there were ten years ago. And clearly, the reason for all of this is not the fact that golf clubs, course fees, and course memberships are so ridiculously expensive, or the fact that playing 18 holes of golf at a typical daily fee course takes five hours, which basically eats up the entire day. No, clearly the problem is that the hole is too small. Fixing that will solve all of golf's problems.
The whole idea behind the giant holes is that golf needs a shake-up of tradition, because golfers are bored with the old ways. I'll acknowledge that the current format of golf isn't ideal, however, I disagree completely on the solution. The issue that is driving golfers away isn't that golf is too hard. Fact is, that's part of the reason golf is as popular as it is. If golf was easy, it wouldn't be interesting. No, the problem is that golf is so expensive, both in terms of money and time. It costs a fortune to build a typical 18 hole golf course, and most of it just isn't necessary. There is really no need for 99% of golf courses to be more than 7,000 yards. They're not tournament courses, and they shouldn't have aspirations to be tournament courses. And it would be nice if walks from greens to tees weren't so long. That would certainly save a bit of real estate.
Actually, I think what golf really needs is not a break from tradition, but a return to a very old tradition that's really fallen by the wayside. When golf was in its very formative stage, courses were not 18 holes. St. Andrews was 22 holes, Prestwick was 11, Musselburgh was 9, it wasn't until St. Andrews consolidated some shorter holes to make 18 that the standard began, and even into the 19th century, courses in Britain as often as not started off as shorter than 18 holes. Today, one of Britain's great hidden gems is Shiskine, a 12 hole course. A 9 or 12 hole course can be fit into a smaller area, still feature normal length holes, and a round can be played in two or three hours. A round would be less expensive and would take a lot less time. All that we would have to do is get over our predilection for an 18 hole round. I can certainly do that.
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