In the next month, TaylorMade-Adidas Golf will subsidize the installation of 15-inch-diamter (yes, you heard that correctly) holes at about 100 golf courses. The goal? Trying to make golf more accessible. And according to officials, thinking outside the longstanding (and some say, sacred) rules may help.
An article in the Business Standard discussed the effort.
"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," said Ted Bishop, the president of the PGA of America, who also owns a large Indiana golf complex. "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."
Among the unconventional types of golf is an entry-level version in which the holes are 15 inches wide, about four times the width of a standard hole.
A 15-inch-hole event was held here at the Reynolds Plantation resort on Monday. It featured the top professional golfers Sergio García 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," said García, who shot a six-under-par 30 for nine holes in the exhibition.
Other initiatives include Foot Golf (played with soccer balls) as well as efforts to relax the rules and allow do-over shots, or mulligans, once a hole; teeing up the ball for each shot; and throwing a ball out of a sand bunker once or twice a round. Still other ideas include an abbreviated version of the game (six holes, for example) to accommodate the schedule of busy parents.
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