Making Golf More Fun

By Jack Moorehouse

Some people take golf too seriously. We've all heard the one about the golfer who got so upset over hitting a ball in the water that he grabbed his golf clubs—or at least what he thought was his golf clubs—and threw then into the lake, bag and all. Turns out the bag he grabbed belonged to one of his playing partners. Needless to say, that turned out to be a costly mistake for the golfer. He had to buy his partner a new set of clubs.

But golf should be fun. They take it way beyond carving out a low golf handicap. For them it's a matter of life and death. But there's more to golf than your score. Golf gives you a chance to get out with friends on a good day (most of the time) and enjoy both the weather and the scenery. If you walk the course, as many golfers do, it's good exercise. It even gives you a chance to practice a golf tip or two you've read about in a magazine. Learning something new is always fun.

After playing a round you can always stop in at the clubhouse with your friends and get something to eat and drink and talk about the round. Bringing people together is what golf is all about. Unfortunately, many golfers don't always see it this way, especially beginners. They'd rather rant and rave after making a bad shot or bad score. Golf should be fun. Here are some suggestions for making it game more so.

Make The Hole Wider
Gene Sarazen once made a suggestion that we should make the hole wider. The Royal & Ancient Golf Course set the hole's diameter at 4 ¼ inches. How did they arrive at that number? It was simple. That happened to be the width of the hole cutter used in Musselburgh, Scotland, on its golf course back in the old days. The rusty hole cutter is still on display at the Musselburgh Golf club. Its size is due to the width of the drainpipes used as hole liners during the Victorian era.

But some old golfers, including Harry Vardon, thought the hole altogether too small. He thought that with a hole that size putting had too much of an effect on one's score. He wanted to place more emphasis on shotmaking. Keep in mind that if you’re a typical golfer, you probably hit the your driver 10 to 12 times a round. You swing your 6-iron iron two or three times a round. But you putt 30 to 40 times a round. That puts a great deal of emphasis on putting—maybe too much.

The old-timers thought that unfair. The might be right be right. The cup's area represents about 1/50,000th of the total real estate on a typical hole. That's why Gene Sarazen campaigned for a bigger hole about 70 years ago. He thought the hole should be about eight inches across. If they widen the hole, though Sarazen, short putts would lose their terrors. Not only would a golfer be able to sink more short putts, increasing the game's fun, but golf handicaps would be lower and the pace of play faster.

Banish The Rough
Another way for players to make the game more fun is also a good teaching tool. One teaching pro as part of his golf lessons plays a couple of rounds with each student. Every time a new student hits into the rough, the pro takes the ball out of the rough and places it on the fairway 10 yards back. That way the student is always hitting from the fairway. After the student has been playing for while, the pro teaches the student to hit from the rough. But in the meantime the student has fun learning to hit the golf ball.

Play Practice Games
A third way of making golf more fun is to play games during practice sessions. Grab a fellow golfer and see who can make the most consecutive putts from 10 feet away. Or go to the range and see who can hit a specific area on the range the most times out of a bucket of balls. The loser buys the winner a drink. Not only would you learn to hit more accurate shots, but you'd also have more fun doing it. You can even play a similar game with yourself.

These are just three suggestions for making the game more fun. Countless other ways exist. The real key is yourself and your attitude. Try not to take the game too seriously. Just go out and have fun. Enjoy the day as much as you can regardless of the score. Who knows? You might even find that not taking the game so seriously improves your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.