[Mark_Fine]

The game of golf has been evolving for over 500 years.  Putting is a “relatively" new evolution - it’s only been around for about 150 or so years Most think is started at The Old Course by Alan Robertson as the hole and the next teeing ground slowly started to separate away from one another and “prepared” green surfaces began to be formed.  Now putting greens are probably the single most expensive aspect of golf to build and to maintain.  Also, putting has become a central aspect of golf as many matches and tournaments (at all levels) end up as putting contests.  Has this aspect of golf’s evolution been good or bad for the game and will it evolve in a different direction in the coming years? 

[Thomas Dai]

Wondering if perhaps putting wasn’t the first aspect of golf to appear? Knocking a stone with a stick and all that.
One thing about putting though, I wish there were more municipal putting greens.
Places where kids, parents, grandparents etc could putt away cheaply and where some can first get an experience of golf. Even crazy-golf/putt-putt would do. It’s where a lot of us started. It’s also a place where as the years roll-on some of us might likely play our last shots.
Atb

[Mark_Fine]

Thomas,
Putting as we know it evolved.  I am sure you realize golfers used to take sand out of the hole and use it to make a tee about one club length away for their next shot.  Slowly they moved the one club length away to two clubs lengths and four and then ten,.. and the concept of prepared greens appeared.  Up until then, golfers were essentially chipping the ball into the hole.


Like you say, putting is one thing most everyone can do and probably why the concept of miniature golf came about. 

[Anthony Gray]

 Drive for show and putt for doe.


 I would have thought golf started with putting then got stretched out. Putting is a nice way to introduce a kid to golf.

[Mark_Fine]

Anthony,
Nope.  Golf was actually played over buildings, down roads, across/over/around all kinds of obstacles (hard to do that with a putter).  The reason they chose the areas they did for golf was because of the obstacles.  If there were no obstacles to conquer, what fun was that     They just dug a hole in the ground as the final objective of the game and the ground around it wasn't all that smooth 

[Anthony Gray]

Anthony,
Nope.  Golf was actually played over buildings, down roads, across/over/around all kinds of obstacles (hard to do that with a putter).  The reason they chose the areas they did for golf was because of the obstacles.  If there were no obstacles to conquer, what fun was that     They just dug a hole in the ground as the final objective of the game and the ground around it wasn't all that smooth 

 Excellent. I know of nuts that play it in their neighborhood with those fome  practice balls.   

[jeffwarne]

Watching the PNC, it seemed a putt was very rarely missed, and almost never twice.
Its seems to devalue putting(or more acuurately, green reading) when greens get that flat and true.
Only half the field was major winners.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Only half the field was major winners.

Less than that. Matt Kuchar is playing. 

[jeffwarne]

Only half the field was major winners.

Less than that. Matt Kuchar is playing. 

lol, except you forgot both Kordas won majors 

[Erik J. Barzeski]

lol, except you forgot both Kordas won majors 

Ha ha! Love it. 

[Thomas Dai]

Thomas,
Putting as we know it evolved.  I am sure you realize golfers used to take sand out of the hole and use it to make a tee about one club length away for their next shot.  Slowly they moved the one club length away to two clubs lengths and four and then ten,.. and the concept of prepared greens appeared.  Up until then, golfers were essentially chipping the ball into the hole.
Like you say, putting is one thing most everyone can do and probably why the concept of miniature golf came about.

I'm thinking way before this. Not quite back to when woolly mammoths wondered the globe but certainly a fair few centuries ago! Hitting stones and the like with sticks and all that.
I believe Alister MacKenzie laid out a couple of municipal putting greens. Bakewell and Cheltenham might have been the locations.
atb

[Tim Martin]

As time marches on there are increasingly more variations on golf. There is Disc Golf, Miniature Golf, Simulator Golf and Top Golf to name some. None replace or replicate what has as Mark pointed out been the standard for the last one hundred and fifty years of holing out on a defined “green” regardless of shape or size. Everything seems to evolve but at least for me the current form is the most appealing and I’m at a loss as to what new itineration could make it more compelling minus getting the ball in the hole. I love to play Winter Golf donning layered clothing, long underwear, glove(s) and a ski hat but lose all interest when the greens close and temporary pins are forced on the landscape.

[Mark_Fine]

Tim,
I agree with you about temporary greens.  Nobody likes them.  But isn't part of the reason because they are generally just small circles placed in the middle of a fairway and there is not much interest around them.  What if the temporary green had interesting surrounds but it was just much smaller? 

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()