This leaves golf as the only
mainstream sport that hasn’t widely
adopted a version of the game where
the winner can be declared within two
to three hours of the event starting.
Alternative formats for golf was a hot
topic of discussion among delegates
at this year’s annual meeting of the
American Society of Golf Course
Architects in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Attracting new crowds to professional
tournaments is one poetnetial benefit.
But the bigger picture comes from
bringing more people into contact
with the game. Those who attend a
popular, shorter professional event
might be encouraged to try (or revive
a past interest in) the sport. And golf
clubs that offer a shorter version at
their facilities might attract those
golfers who presently do not have
time to play a full 18 holes.
So what should that shorter version
be? Twenty20 cricket has largely the
same rules as traditional cricket, but
with a limited number of ‘overs’ (in
extremely simple terms, an over is
a set of six attempts to hit the ball).
And it was already a recognized
format before formal Twenty20 events
were played. Its closest equivalent in
golf might be a nine-hole tournament
with a shotgun start.
Golf is not short of recognized
formats that could be adapted for a
shorter version of the game. There are
a number of established golf clubs,
such as Open Championship venue
Royal St Georges in Kent, England,
where two-ball formats like foursomes
(two teams of two players taking
alternate shots) are at times insisted
upon, in order to keep the game
moving quickly. For Royal Worlington
& Newmarket Golf Club a little
further north, the rapid play enabled
by a foursomes policy has allowed
the club to accommodate a large
membership on a nine-hole course.
But a breakthrough might require
a more radical approach. Reynolds
Plantation Golf Club in Georgia–
which has six golf courses, each
designed by an ASGCA member–
recently hosted an experimental
event organized by Hack Golf, a
partnership between TaylorMade and
the PGA of America that is exploring
ways to increase golf’s fun factor.
Standard 4.5 inch diameter golf holes
were replaced with big 15-inch cups
for a nine-hole exhibition tournament
that featured professional golfers
Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia. “A 15-
inch hole could help junior golfers,
beginner golfers and older golfers
score better, play faster and like golf
more,” said Garcia.
There are parallels between the
big cup idea and another concept
introduced in the 1926 book
Golf
Architecture in America
by golf course
architect George C. Thomas, whose
designs include Riviera Country
Club and Bel-Air Country Club in
California. In the chapter ‘Arbitrary
Values’, he proposes that putts count
as “half strokes”.
Thomas felt that with less value
assigned to putting, accuracy
from the fairway would be greater
rewarded. In match play in particular,
holes are more likely to have been
already conceded once players are
on the green. One player who is
reasonably close to the hole in two
shots is unlikely to be matched by
another who has taken three to reach
the putting surface.
For both Thomas’s concept and 15-
inch cups, the removal of some of the
anguish around putting reduces the
time spent on the green and speeds
up play. And while Thomas’s concept
can be tried without any adaptation
of a golf course, for both ideas greens
could generally be smaller and require
09
The Challenge Course at Monarch Dunes has two flags on each hole,
one with a bigger cup, providing multiple alternative ways to play
Image: Aidan Bradley
