What makes golf fun?

[Anthony Gray]

  The Course?

  The Competition?

  Playing Partners?

  Location?

  Proper Etiquitte?

  The Clothes?

     ?

[Ally Mcintosh]

Everything bar the last one...

...But in general, I think that people have forgotten how to have fun on the golf course... how to enjoy the game...

[Scott Warren]

What makes you say that, Ally?

[Melvyn Morrow]

The Course………………..Can always make the difference.

The Competition………....Depending upon the course, other golfers, the weather and 
                                     what side of the bed you got out of or whose. 

Playing Partners……….... Can make a big difference

Location……………………...Home in Scotland with the right attitude seems to prevail

Proper Etiquette………….  Its not Golf without out it no matter what other say

The Clothes………………....The right attire for the club, course, region and weather
                                       conditions

Aids………………………….....The human body and mind a sod all else except for clubs and
                                        Balls

Bar……………………………....Good Bar to relax – but not Anthony’s stark and drab ones   


Ally

Yes fully agree because we seem today so full of being too competitive and overcomplicating our rounds. We allow distractions to take our mind of the fun side, use all forms of aids to make life easier but more boring, which has the knock on effect of taking the interest out of the game and in doing so waters down the fun element. Golf needs to have a Women’s Lib moment, a sort of burn the bra revolution by disposing of all aids and get back to walking and thinking golf to really let enjoyment shine through again.

Melvyn

[Anthony Gray]

   The Fitness?

[Dan Herrmann]

If I'm playing purely for fun (which is 90% of the time), it's the golf course.   I love discovering new things every time out.

I also love playing with folks that can play fast, smile, and not take themselves too seriously (after all, none of us were invited to play at The Masters).

Sounds goofy, but I also love catching glimpses of nature at work.

[Mac Plumart]

I like the challenge. 

I got paired with an 80 year old man the other day who was walking the course at Druid Hills.  He said that golf is fun when you've got good weather, a good course, good company, and you put up a good score.  Then he said, but three out of four isn't bad!

80 years old, walking the course, carrying his own bag, playing as a single (until my playing partner and I joined him)...awesome!!!  FYI, he says when people ask him why he walks the course at such an advanced age he always response, "because I can."  I liked it!

[Rick Sides]

I would say one thing that jumps to my mind is just being outside.  It is so enjoyable playing a game outside and walking around the course.  There are times when I go out to my home course around 5:00 at night and hardly anyone is out there and I  just walk around and clear my head; I'm not even thinking of the score during these times.  Then there are times when I like to call up a friend or two and play a round.  I enjoy the company of others during these times and being able to laugh and enjoy a good shot or a bad shot    The other great part about golf is meeting new people and learning from them about their lives and about their game of golf. I have met so many nice strangers and started playing getting to know them and observe how another person thinks his/her way around a course.  The greatest advice I ever received was from an older gentleman one afternoon.  I had just been playing golf for about a year (cutting my teeth)  and I was blasting balls across greens, three and four putting etc.  After the round the man had shot a clam, cool 81, and I asked him how he did so well and he said, "practice the short game."   That one comment really helped me get better.  The final beauty I see in golf is the fact that each course is different.  Unlike football, baseball, basketball, etc where each field has  relatively strict dimensions, golf courses are works of art.  I love being able t try to think my way through a course or sometimes just get crazy and hit a risky shot for the hell of it.  I can leave a golf course and tell myself that I may not have had a good round of golf, but I was able to enjoy the design. Golf is also a sport that can never be perfected.  I have had days, weeks, months when I was playing great, then al the sudden my game goes south.  The challenge then becomes trying to put the pieces back together without driving myself nuts.  Golf is a fun game.

[Brent Hutto]

I've always figured not totally sucking at it would make golf a real blast!

Failing that...dry turf, a cool breeze and one or two like-minded individuals goes a long way.

And short Par 4's, lots of short Par 4's,.

[Mike Nuzzo]

What makes you say that, Ally?

I'll guess for Ally.
It seems like there are a large percentage of people that feel that fun is owed to them vs. making it fun for themselves.

[Adam Clayman]

Wind.

[Tim Gavrich]

I think there are many golfers who don't realize how much more fun they could have on the golf course than they already do.  Many players--guys I play with in tournaments and non-competitive 20+ handicappers alike--adhere altogether too strictly to certain preconceived notions about what golf should be like.  I see this especially with respect to golf courses, where players think that it doesn't get any better than a lush, soft and green course.  They get ticked off at golf courses whose roughs have occasional bare/hardpan bits, calling it "unfair" because their singular view of what rough should be like is what they see on TV.

Golfers also seem to put too much pressure on themselves with most of their shots.  I can't count how many college players I've played with get so down on themselves after a squirrelly shot that it stays with them the whole round.  I get upset and talk to myself after bad shots, but I tend to let them go and still have fun with the next one.

I think all of Anthony's bullet points are important to how much fun golf is--even the clothes.  I had the good fortune to be able to go out to play one of the Greenbrier courses with a teammate this afternoon and I enjoyed intentionally looking my best out there (though I forgot a belt...d'oh!).  It was one of the most fun days on/around a golf course that I've had in a long time.

[Mike McGuire]

auto one downs

[Pete_Pittock]

Oneself. If you can't make yourself have any fun, the rest of what is offered doesn't make any difference. If you capable of having fun, the course and your playing companions accentuate the fun. Just don't be a rallykiller.

[Jim Sweeney]

Clearly the only thing that makes golf fun is buying equipment that causes one to hit the ball farther, higher, and straighter without any need for improving one's skill. I know this because the equipment manufactureres have relentlessly drilled this fact into my brain for over forty years and are so certain of this that they have threatened to sue anyone who dares challenge their thesis!

Just between us (I hope Ely and John and Wally aren't lurking here) I believe that the real fun of the game lies in adapting to the many challenges presented during a round, and doing so with integrity and honor, accepting that the game is fundamentally unfair, but not caring because it is equitable, allowing one to laugh at himself and comiserate with others, and being able to do so (God willing) late into life with people we care about on the greatest fields of play of any game, every one unique even if not spectacular, and rehashing one's conquests and foibles over a fine pilsner or sourmash after the round and arriving home sunburned, ennervated, relaxed and gloriously happy with the certain knowledge that in the near future one will once again go forth and meet the challenges of this great game with eager anticipation.

[Alex Miller]

Width.

Marginal shots should be penalized but the opportunity for recovery plays a large role in my fun on a golf course.

[Gary Slatter]

what makes golf fun for spectators?

[Peter Pallotta]

If I was a better golfer, that would be fun. It would be fun to hit that ball like, say, Brian Gay. Playing golf like Corey Pavin also looks like a lot of fun. Reaching a green - the actual green itself, not the 'green surrounds' - in two on a Par 5, that might be fun. Shooting 2 under on a 7000 yard course would be fun. Drawing a 3 wood into a cross wind to have the correct flight for a canted, fast running fairway is fun. But also, what Pete Pittock said is spot on - without the capacity for fun, even hitting that 3 wood with Pamela Anderson giggling excitedly next to me wouldn't be fun...
Peter

[Joe Hancock]

I guess I wasn't aware that there was a version of golf that wasn't fun.....

 

[Peter Pallotta]

Easy for you to say, Hancock, since your 3 wood to the Par 5 at the Mines I listed yesterday as the greatest golf shot I've ever seen.
Sure - everything's fun, everything's peach-fuzz. Try hacking it around a course like I do for 4 hours and see how much you'd have. I'd be a fun-loving and loveable Joe Hancock too if I could regularly break 80 without breaking a sweat...
Peter

[Mike Hendren]

Watching the ball react.

[Dan Kelly]

A completely incomplete list, in no meaningful order:

Playing partners who know what they're talking about -- but don't talk about it much.

I'm with Adam Clayman: Wind.

Bounce-and-roll.

One-of-a-kind shots -- from spots I never planned to be, and semi-hope never to be again.

Pure contact, with any club.

The sound of a putt dropping.

Barbecued buffalo sandwiches, between rounds at Sutton Bay.

Watching my cousin's son drive the ball about a million miles.

Practice -- particularly short-game practice.

Getting out to play an actual round of golf, after a long winter. (Still hasn't happened yet in 2010!)

[Steve Wilson]

Camaraderie

Competition

But mostly the golf itself. Beholdling the ball in its career, be it airborne or terrestrial.  Challenging the margins of our ability. Succeeding or failing and adjusting the perception of those margins on the basis of those successes or failures.

Only Monday I played 18 with my hickories by myself.  It's been sometime since golf was so elemental.  There's no sweet spot as sweet as persimmon or for that matter a perfectly struck mashie.

 

[Jeff_Brauer]

I think there are many golfers who don't realize how much more fun they could have on the golf course than they already do.........

Many players--guys I play with in tournaments and non-competitive 20+ handicappers alike--adhere altogether too strictly to certain preconceived notions about what golf should be like............  

I can't count how many college players...get so down on themselves after a squirrelly shot that it stays with them the whole round.

So perhaps some of those inspirational posters around the course might help?  Like one saying "Your worst hole is often followed by your best!"  Personally, I would love to have a course put out a sign saying "Why complain about being outdoors five hours in beautiful surroundings?"  I might also put one out saying "Reading Putts is like taking a test - your first impression is usually right, so go with it!"

Anthony,

Great topic, and one every course owner ought to consider as golf faces more challenges for free time endeavors.

There have been some NGF studies on this for average public golfers.  I don't have time to pull them out, but in general, its camraderie with friends (presumably including small, friendly wagers), outdoor activity, and shooting near your average score on a course you deem challenging - its not as fun on a pitch and putt or course you deem to easy.

Obviously, shooting your personal best would also be great fun, but its not expected.  

I do think its hard to quantify, but having at least a few great successes through the round - like the great carry shot over water or a long putt, figures in.  In that vein, a few spectacular failures need to be there to highlight the success.

That said, I also know lost balls are a real pain.  You celebrate the successes for a few seconds, although the glow lasts a while, but you look for lost balls five minutes (which is no fun) and then the opposite mental images start, so a lost ball is at least 7 minutes of no fun at all, not to mention a $2-$4 hit to the wallet you weren't planning on.  Do that ten times a round, and you have added over an hour of misery, which is difficult to overcome, so the ratio of great things, to average things, to bad things must be in line to walk off the course satisfied.....all IMHO, of course.

Dan Kelly,

What about the coiled bratwursts at Giant's Ridge?  Or do they just look too much like dog turds to enjoy the taste, as Gov. Pawlenty thought?

Actually and seriously, as much as some of you guys hate the "experience" or at least its replacement of gca as a determinant of course quality, I think some signature food items, like the Arnold Palmer drink, or a specialty sandwhich can help a course's allure.  18 holes of golf AND a Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich!"  If I owned a course anymore, I think I would try to get something pretty good and distinctive on the menu.

[Dan Kelly]

...a few spectacular failures need to be there to highlight the success.

Not a problem, for either one of us!

What about the coiled bratwursts at Giant's Ridge?  Or do they just look too much like dog turds to enjoy the taste, as Gov. Pawlenty thought?

There goes the Dog Turd Eaters bloc, in 2012 -- though they'd probably prefer Palin, anyway.

(Honestly, Jeff, I don't *remember* the coiled bratwurst! Perhaps I was still too traumatized by the tragic death of that poor chipmunk. Either that, or it's been too long since I've ventured north to the Brauer Trail.)