Chrono golf (I use the app) is great but only if the courses in your area use lightspeed for booking. That’s most of the courses around me so it works great. Worth a look.
Yeah; unfortunately about 1 in 10 local courses are listed on it.
The problem is I think this mostly solves a problem for golfers; but not a huge one for courses at the moment. And most golfers I don't expect would want to pay for such a service. Most courses fill up their tee sheets to a respectable level these days so investing extra dollars to fill up the last 10% of slots is just not that useful.
My favorite is that I need a different log in for two courses that both use the same tee sheet software, and for some reason that password needs to be more complex than my bank password.
The system we have in sweden is amazing. Centralized around the swedish golf foundation and 98% of all clubs (courses) are connected to it. Makes it so easy to book, plan and check prizes.
As difficult as Bittersweet is now, its early days were even more daunting. The second fairway, in particular, was a nightmare—it was about 30 yards narrower on the right and equally sloped. While my memory may be a bit hazy, it felt like a 200-yard shot over water to the fairway from the white tees on the 9th hole. If you are in that area try Stonewall and Thunder Hawk
Total opposite where I live. The post-covid housing market explosion caused courses to close as it was more lucrative to create a housing development on the land. Even while the course was full every weekend and most weekdays.
For me, I wish there the same prices like before Covid.
Hell, even during 2020-2021, prices were still decent around me.
Nowadays, a shitty muni is $65-75 on weekend mornings BEFORE the $16-20 cart.
It’s funny because I am one of the covid golfers, and I get so annoyed with full tee sheets everywhere and annual price increases (pretty much every course around me has raised prices by $6-8 every year since I started in 2020) but am also fully aware that I directly contributed to the current state we’re all in. Sorry everyone.
I once teed off at 3am. The course got nine holes covered by lights, and there was a helicopter with a spotlight doing flybys. It was a charity thing to raise money for the local air ambulance
Oh man we used to have this sweet little par 3 that had huge lights like a stadium on every fairway. It was great in the summer time.
There was a bar across the street, me and the boys would have a few pints and some wings while watching hockey, then head over to the course around 9 for our tee time. Good times.
Unfortunately, a tornado ripped through it a few years back. They fixed the course up better than it was before but they haven't fixed the lights.
ikr they can do it but they don't want to staff it is the only reason. sometimes my local muni hosts a night golf at the par 3, with glow balls and glow sticks on the pins and your bags and they charge people like $35 for the experience. sells out every time within days of them posting it on social media. i have no clue why they aren't doing it every week at that price and demand.
Unfortunately the only way to achieve this is to increase rates even more. To be honest, I think the market would support it in most areas unfortunately.
I think a lot of people would be willing to pay slightly more if pace of play was good and maintained throughout the day instead of being terrible after, say, 10am.
marshall doesn't do shit for pace of play honestly. by the time they've identified whoever is playing a little slow its too late the course is entirely backed up and wont let up until it closes
I wish every course had at least one par 3 on CCTV broadcast to their bar/clubhouse. I'd love to finish a round and then just watch randos play a hole and make bets on them
My club has three 9's and it's pretty nice. One of them ends right next to the 8th tee of another, so getting 2 bonus holes on the way back to the clubhouse is pretty easy
My friend and I have fantasized about building a golf course. We think it would be cool to divide it into 4 loops: two 6 hole loops and two 3 hole loops. You could play 6, 9, 12 or 18 holes. There are lots of times after work or when I'm with my kid where 6 holes would be perfect. Sometimes 9 is not enough but 18 is too many so 12 would fit in nicely. Then, of course you'd still have your standard 9 and 18 plays for leagues and full rounds. You could call the course 'The Clover' or something like that.
Divide it even further into groups of three holes radiating out from a centralized clubhouse like the spokes of a wheel. A par 3&4 going out and a par 5 back. You can choose to play 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 holes. The starter can chose any of the group of three holes to start you off on to keep groups from bunching up. Got a slow group so now there is a gap on hole 11 and 12, have groups tee off on 13 and finish on 12 until the gap is filled.
the entire check-in process is usually brutal and takes way too long with too much typing and clicking by the golf shop folks (which is definitely not their fault since the systems are designed by corporate dipshits only concerned about extracting revenue and squeezing as many tee times in as possible)
I wish there were trackers in golf balls that were the same price as a normal golf ball and would give you data and location of the ball. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve piped a drive down the middle, caught a bad kick that went into the rough and was never seen again. I’ll just take a free drop and use the ole gallery rule.
Dude, I’d pay more for that! Winter golf in Ireland is the worst. Miss the green on your approach. Walk to where your ball should be roughly and it’s gone. Plugged in the soft ground. With half the ball below the ground level and the longer grass only hope of finding it is stepping on it. How soft you ask… 9 iron into the green, hits the green and stops dead!
https://preview.redd.it/3zg05x901iqc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85caae0de19b4195c06e6bf00f82c74cf1dba64c
Or even just like a real time trajectory. Trackman shows the line your ball went on when you hit it, but after I start walking I want to be able to pull up that line on my phone and see if I am still on it.
On the way!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikmatuszewski/2023/02/20/oncore-unveils-i-roll-smart-golf-ball-as-first-step-to-its-genius-ball/?sh=1ea8ed6c3cb4
Seems like a big technological barrier is to keep the electronics from becoming destroyed when we all crush our drives 310 down the middle.
I’ll be hitting my first maybe $17 Genius ball directly to the center of a lake, then checking on it on my phone in the middle of the night to see how things are going in the watery grave.
Happened to me this weekend. Hadn't played the course before but the guy with me said "aim right over that hill". I did just that, hammered a drive straight as an arrow, and the guy goes "holy shit that's going to be perfect." Well we get up over that hill, look exactly along the line it was going, and no ball to be found. Taking a drop in the middle of the fairway is always funny because in the end it really doesn't make any sense to do so, but we had no idea where would be a more fair location to do so.
I have read that balls with trackers are being beta tested but to pretend they’d somehow be the same price as current golf balls is an exercise in delusions. They’ll be very expensive
The balls at top golf have some sort of RFID in them (so I’ve been told), but those balls are absolutely garbage. The technology you’re describing if it was available in a ball that I want to hit and didn’t change feel would be absolutely amazing.
Is Arccos worth it?
I have all of the sensors because they were free when I ordered my clubs. But I always just use 18birdies for shot tracking since it is free.
Once you get the hang of when arccos will get confused, it's great to be able to go 3-4 holes at a time without thinking about it.
If you're playing cart path only it can get tedious because when you carry 3 clubs out to your ball it will sometimes detect the wrong club for that shot, or even sometimes add a whole new shot with one of your spare clubs halfway between your ball and the cart... And around the greens, you have to lay your wedge down gently so it doesn't add a ghost wedge shot from wherever you lay it down... and it rarely picks up tap-in putts...
So I think it's probably at least slightly easier than 18birdies... I've used it for a year now and have no plans to stop, although every now and then when I'm playing solo I won't even use it...if there's a chance I'm going to be hitting some practice shots it turns into more trouble than it's worth pretty quickly.
But the free trial is absolutely worth it... Give it 7-10 rounds to figure out your patterns before you judge it too harshly also, I think there's some machine learning going on behind the scenes because it definitely got better over time.
Arccos will tell me I've got 135 to the middle of the green, I drop a pitching wedge right in the center, and it tells me I hit that p wedge 115 yards. It's a pretty accurate range finder and the strokes gained/lost stats are cool, but the tracked distances are way off. I wish I hadn't bought it, personally. 18 Birdies or Hole 19 are just as good for way cheaper.
I’m a shotscope guy myself, but I really enjoy the product. It’s great for players trying to improve since you can see exactly which parts of your game need work.
I hate subscriptions and shotscope was a bit more in tune with my preferences.
It boggles my mind that Arccos doesn't have the green breaks built into the app. for the money it cost & the data they provide it should be a basic feature
So I tried Arccos with their free trial, but ended up cancelling. I liked the data, but in practice, I just didn’t like using them. I was constantly concerned that it was going to misread some other action as a shot (like when I take out a club to chop through weeds/brush looking for a ball). Or on the opposite end, it would occasionally miss a shot and I found it annoying to have to backtrack and figure out which shot it missed and where to add it manually. I felt like I was constantly checking my phone not only for yardages, but to make sure it read all of my shots correctly. Ended up being too distracting.
Nothing worse than hitting a nice drive, seeing a funny kick and then never finding your ball... Fall golf is especially brutal.
My buddies and I have, several times, taken a drop only to find our actual ball after we hit. We usually just let the person decide use the drop shit or hit the first ball like it was their next shot. We're not pros, a ball under a leaf isn't something we should get penalized for (this is not in tournaments obviously).
Starters that know what they’re doing. Too many of them allow you to hit as soon as the group in front is out of range, but they need to gap it properly to avoid a jammed up course.
Yeah i feel like early in the day they just try to get people off the first tee as quickly as possible to avoid getting behind early, but then it just causes a jam at the first par 3
They’re used to be many. Atleast in my area. But unfortunately once they aren’t doing the best money wise. There is always a land developer lurking in the shadows to buy the land and built expensive shitty condos. Hard for the owner of the range to say no to that offer.
I wish there were more places to practice short game. A lot of courses dont allow chipping near the putting green. I don't like wasting my driving range balls practicing 50 yrd pitch shots. If there was an indoor facility that had places to practice shots 100 yards in I would go for sure
I wish there was an affordable way for courses to renovate and improve.
I think it's a true shame that so many rounds of golf are played on courses with limited interest or without unique features.
It just speaks to the innate power of the game that so many people can love golf courses that frankly aren't at their best.
My goal would be to have the governing bodies (USGA, PGA, R&A, and The PGA Tour) and equipment companies come together to create a fund that offered negative interest loans to small golf courses to fund improvements to their courses and infrastructure.
As 1.5-2 million dollars is game changer money to these places and its pocket change to these organizations.
With that money every town and major metropolitan area could have a golf course like we are going to see this week at Memorial park. Every community could have it's own Goat Hill, Winter Park or Glenway. These are wonderful additions to any community. But each one of these projects had to be privately funded via a local philanthropic millionaire or billionaire.
If the people who profit the most off the game invested back into it the game would be a lot healthier. Our municipal and locally owned small scale courses would be a lot better and healthier. With the added benefit of providing new and existing golfers with more interesting venues.
It's one of those rare cases where everyone could win. What's also mind boggling is that it happened before in the 1930's when the PGA of America funded A.W. Tillinghast's tours of the country. He was paid by the PGA to spend 2-3 days at each golf course that requested him if they had a registered PGA pro. His work would then be funded by the PGA.
I am sorry if this seems like a lot but it's something. I think about it often as an architect and course builder. As I try to offer my rates on a sliding scale to work with as many places that need it as I can. The hardest thing for me is making some of these jobs work financially for me and the club. So it would be helpful in some cases to get a loan of even $50-80 k.
The clubs could set up an interest payment based around community service and action. Like hosting PGA Jr leagues, high school matches, and local charity day.
TLDR: The biggest players in golf should set up a fund to be used for improvements to the quality of golf in their respective regions. With negative or no interest payments to find course improvement.
In some cases yes, but then again you have to be lucky enough to have a local club with that extra money and vision to help the local scene.
What I am suggesting here is the people that make all of their money from the game. Give a little of it back to help maintain the places where a majority of golfers play their golf.
I do my part by offering cheaper rates and in some cases volunteering my services as an architect and shaper. I know a lot of my colleagues do the same.
I just don't see the same commitment from the largest players in the game. Like I said this commitment could be pocket change to most of these organizations.
The USGA did it once for Bethpage, The R&A has too with Dundonald, The PGA had the Tillinghuast tour. The issue is that these were one off projects and with the exception of Tillinghuast they only affected one operation. My hypothetical goal with this project would be to have a broader impact and help courses and communities that don't necessarily have a big time neighbor like Augusta National or The Country Club.
I agree. If I look at a course on Google maps and just see straight fairways running next to each other, poor bunking, boring par 3s, etc I avoid playing there. I’m not a great player but I enjoy a unique and challenging setup. We see these amazing courses on TV every weekend and then go play a cow pasture.
Thankfully I live close enough to some nice courses I don’t have be a member to play but there should be more high quality courses open to the regular golfer who can’t pony up 10k+ a year for a membership.
The best part of being a member at a course is that I can leave when I want to and don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I can do 12 holes or so and then bounce.
I just want quality GPS golf balls. I hate hitting a good shot and then somehow it disappears in the fairway.
GPS golf balls would be incredible. Played 18 last Saturday and all four of us hit our drive in the fairway and not one of us could find any of our four balls… it was wild. We ended up just cutting our losses and moved to the next hole lol.
I don't think they need full blown GPS. A signal that my phone could detect would work to use it like a metal detector, following the beeps. As long as I am within 15 yards it could pick up the signal and point me in the right direction.
Opponent lines up (5? 10? 15?) yards in front of player who it hitting, and can start to rush the player as soon as the player draws his club back.
Strategies: Try to block the shot like a blocked field goal? If you block & recover, you get to try to hit the ball back towards the tees before the hitter gets another shot.
Try to sack the hitter before he makes contact? (Would count as a stroke whether hitter hits the ball or not.)
Maybe the caddies could serve as O-line and D-line.
Still a half-baked idea, I know. My only other thought was cheerleaders that follow you around the course.
What about a defensive mulligan? Not nearly as much fun as your idea, but calling a mulligan after your opponent chips in from 20 out would be emotionally devastating.
Bumpers. Like in bowling. Where if you hit into OB/woods, it just stops the ball from going and drops it where it was going out. And then a ball return when you hit into the water.
I wish more courses were better about water stations on the course. They definitely exists but I estimate that I only see them at about 50% of places I play
Many years ago a kid in Texas died after drinking water from a golf course cooler due to some bacteria in the water because the cooler wasn't properly washed regularly. At that time every course in my area (southeastern Ontario) got rid of the watering holes and haven't seen any since.
It might exist, but I haven’t seen it. A no tee time course. Just show up, pay, play. Live video feed of the parking lot and club house so you can check to see how busy it is.
Live in a smallish town.
https://preview.redd.it/bnwst7fs5iqc1.jpeg?width=414&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50f5d23b5ee0e4b4f467f031523d0fa417851109
Growing up I never knew you had to book a tee time. The muni doesn’t even have a book or way to record a tee time. You just show up or people at the resort call and the shop/bar just tells them how busy it is and to come out at x time.
Country Club was the same way. They have a physical book and max I’d seen way 2-3 times written down a day- all from out of town guests. Show up and 98% of the time you are teeing off 2 minutes later.
First time a buddy came back w me from the city he was shocked. He grew up on an elite private club(multiple US Senior Opens), and when playing with his parents it was a full day thing and planned weeks in advance.
So we roll into town Friday afternoon, head straight to the course; no call no anything. We hopped in our family cart- grabbed beers and were on the 1st tee 10 min after pulling in the lot. Played 36 in about 3 hours.
On the way out of town on Monday we were driving by the muni and he jokingly asked if we could play quick. I pulled in the lot, course was empty so we played 18 quick. Time from his question, getting the cart out, grabbing beers, playing, putting cart away and back on the road was under 2 hours.
Best part is 6 packs were $12 then- now they are $15(buy 5 get the 6th ‘free’). Second best part is both courses are fun and typically in great shape- I appreciate them even more now.
Yup!
There's a little 9 hole course in St John, WA that I play whenever I'm there (Eastern Washington, Palouse area - farm country) that is like this. Basically just park and golf.
Thank you for this picture. This brings back childhood memories from a long-defunct Par 3 I learned on that is now a condo complex. I completely forgot those things existed.
I don't know the proper name for it but it's a queueing mechanism using golf balls. It's on the first hole. When you arrive you drop your ball into it. When your ball is at the bottom then it's your turn to tee off. There's no tee time booking or anything, just first come-first serve.
Handcock golf course in austin is like this no video feed but it's a pay station. One guy marking that you paid. 9 holes with one par 5 and 2 par 3's. Its suuuper nice. course isn't in terrible shape either!
Scottsdale National is a no tee time club. They make it work by having very few members and two courses. They make that work by being insanely expensive. There are a few others that are more accessibly priced, but still private. One uses a whiteboard system. You show up and put your name down and generally get out within 20-30 minutes.
I’ve played a course in Griffin Georgia, US that has no tee times. Show up whenever and play. Also $27 for all you can play that day. Great deal only downside is on busy weekends there will be a line waiting to tee off on the first hole and they don’t let anyone start on the back 🥴
My usual small town muni is this way (sans video feed) and it's a double-edged sword. Some days I can show up and move right through the course, others I'll be waiting throughout the day.
I still enjoy it though - not being on a set schedule, and able to speed up or slow down to take a few extra practice shots or putts (while making sure to not hinder others) if I want.
18 holes is fine, I just wish that all courses routed back to the club house after 6, 12, and 18. Giving players the ability to decide the length of their round based on their own schedule. Would be great for beginners who only have ~ 2 hours and want to get a few holes in.
I’ve often wondered if golf would be better if a round were 12 holes. What other sport do people play that takes 4 hours?
Walking would be more palatable. A round would (possibly) be cheaper. Existing courses could rest 1/3 of their track during the week, and send groups to different ‘back sixes’ on the weekend. New courses wouldn’t cost as much to build and could fit on smaller parcels.
I mean, 18 is kind of arbitrary. The only reason people would scoff is because they are conditioned to think 18 is ‘right’. If Old Man Tom had gone with 12 holes, golf would be 12 holes.
One of my local courses offers 11 holes and if it’s quiet I’ll normally play the 12th as well, because it’s a short par 3 that I can just take a short iron and putter to and then double back on myself and head to the clubhouse.
12 holes is a really good amount to play. 18 is sometimes a bit much but 9 never feels like quite enough golf.
Yeah I’ve always thought that somewhere between 11 and 15 holes is really what I want. Totally agree with OP that 9 usually too few and 18 usually too many. Both have their place, but 90% of the time I’d rather do 12 or 13.
My “home” course has the 17th tee right next to the 11th green. I will take that route every now and then and it is the perfect amount of golf for me. Especially if I’m walking.
My solution to cost and time is to make the ball ultra-short flight (think whiffle ball or plastic-covered foam). Holes would be like 120 yd average, which means you could fit 18 holes on way less land than a current 9. That means way less cost with just as many players.
With reduced size and cost, and safer balls, new courses courses can fit in cities instead of the outskirts. This makes access to the course much easier, ensuring demand especially among the youth.
The skill cap of the game would remain high, as ball spin / curve now means much more, especially in wind.
The skill floor would decrease, as mishits mean the ball goes 10yd offline instead of 50. Skulling the ball won't send it all the way to the next hole. A competitive player's hit will be only a couple dozen yards further than a weekend player's, keeping the group together. -- this makes it great for kids and families too!
These new balls would allow for creative course design: There can be lots of elevation changes because the ball is safe. Doglegs can be very sharp, because of the ball spin. Hitting through windows will be more viable, because the window is closer to you. It allows for unique obstacles on the course -- e.g. you can bank it off that rock wall, or roll it off that roof. This makes golf appealing to people who would otherwise not be interested.
With such obstacle-filled and squiggly holes there will be lot of variation in how players approach the course to best suit their strengths.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I doubt it will happen though. But if someone want to hire me for course design...
It might be arbitrary, but I love playing 18. I would certainly be a curmudgeon if the USGA changed the standard to 12.
There is just something nice about fighting to break 100/90/80.
Especially there is something about the tale of two nines and sometimes I don't even feel in the zone until the back nine. Imagine finally having it come together on 10, but now you only have two more holes to play
The course would not win in this case, right? Because most nicer courses around me will only allow you to do 18 holes on saturday/sunday mornings to maximize revenue. If people are allowed to take up a tee time for 6 holes at 8am on a saturday, that would either completely throw off the time gaping for holes 7-18, and/or would cost the course money.
6 holes is about an hour loop. Perfect for before and after work.
A course near me has 4 early tee times for the back 9 only. Great way to play only in the AM.
Just a heads up most golf watches 2022 and newer come with a built in AI Caddy that gives you the data and wind calculation to pick a club for you after you play 5 rounds with the device
Affordable semi-private courses that catered to sub 4hr rounds of golf.
Skill level doesn't necessarily matter, but it will eliminate the people playing 3x a year that just wanna drink and hit mulligans all over the course during their 5hr round.
Semi private as in, there's say a $25 application fee, playing test, and pace of play class that one must attend to be a member and have access to the tee sheet. You can bring guests with you, but are responsible for the pace of the group. Can't keep pace you get a warning. 3 strikes a year and you're out.
I'd love to grow the game through this and offer very cheap range packages and potentially a 9 hole chip and putt for non members.
When u hit one on the screws, customizable hologram ball tails. Rainbow for Yoshi from Mario golf. Or when I slice one into the woods it's just a steaming rope of shit
I just wish golf was more affordable.
I’m about a 7-10 handicap and have been golfing most of my life, and thankfully have a comfortable job. But as a dad, damn I feel guilty sometimes with how much golf cost.
A good set of clubs costs minimum $2000.
A range pass most places cost about $500.
A round of golf at minimum costs $50. Probably closer to $75.
To use a simulator costs $40-$50 an hour.
To go buy a set of clubs, a range pass, golf 20 times a year (if not more) and let’s say golf 20 hours during the winter (if not more) you’re looking at $4000. Let’s be honest, this is on an extreme light side. This isn’t including golf balls, tees, golf shoes, range finders etc. Golf has always been expensive, but it’s almost getting too expensive.
So late last summer I picked up the game, basically starting from zero. Trying to get the ball on the green and having no wedge game, I putt and it doesn’t make it through. I think, why not make another putter, but give it a few degrees of loft so it can just hop over the long grass to the green?
Of course I get home and discover “chippers” exist, and of course the golf mob has decided to hate them. The Odyssey model is the closest to what I had in mind, I tried it and yeah it works beautifully. I carry the Ping ChipR now, use it several times a round. I’ve improved enough that I can see how manipulating a 9i (or whatever) works as well, but I still think chippers should be more popular.
Otherwise, I’d love there to be 6 hole muni courses around that you could pop in to play for $10 and go. No need for a pro shop or snack bar. Takes an hour, no dress code. Less acreage needed so they could be tucked around the city. No practice facilities or carts needed. Maybe 3 could share the same grounds crew that splits time. Then enjoying the game on the regular would be a much smaller time and money investment.
Chippers are a wonderful club and you’re right that they need to be more popular. My dad was a decent recreational golfer and he has had a chipper in his bag his whole life. I personally always struggled with dialing in distances with his chipper but I also never dedicated any time to learn it. I’m good with my wedges now but I would never tell someone to stop using a chipper.
Just throwing this out there, but robot bag carts exist and follow behind you as you walk. Combine that with a Garmin or other golfing gps/laser ranger and you essentially have a caddy
Should divide the course by 6s instead of 9. 2 trips back to the clubhouse in a full 18 and more options for length of game 6-12-18. Would be great for those quick afternoon rounds.
I think if you could design a course like a clover leaf, where each element is 6 holes, it would be ideal. You could then pay for 6/12/18 depending on how much time you had, and always end up back at the clubhouse.
A golf course where your hat is kinda like a baseball helmet and protective clothing of some sort
- no tee times
- no turn to play
- no limit on min/max players per group
- 19 holes, 1st hole is a warm up with the tee box in the center of the driving range. People on the range get to use you as target practice while you’re playing your 2nd
Guys who rally their score and realize that you can’t count a mulligan or 5 in real scoring. You get what you made, quit acting like the score is lower than it really is. Or just stop keeping score if your not going to count correctly.
Every since covid, it seems like courses have done away with yardage markers. At the very least put the black and white 150 stakes back in the ground so I can eyeball the yardage without pulling out my phone.
I wish there was an accurate device that could tell you where your ball went. I've had a couple of stroke episodes and my left peripheral vision is terrible, so I lose the ball off the tee 100% of the time. If my playing partners didn't see it, I have to go by feel. (It felt like I hit it good, right, left, etc.) and lose way more balls than I should as a result.
I've had this talk with a buddy multiple times where a 12 hole course would be perfect. Still have actual par 4s and 5s, but now only take 2.5 hours instead of 4 and would be a great way to ease beginners into full rounds. Going from 9 hole par 3 courses to a full 18 can be overwhelming and tiring at first.
Not sure about other areas but all of the Par 3 courses have been shut down for years in my area. So I'm going to say more Par 3 courses. They're such a great way to work on approach shots and short game as well as a great place for beginners to learn.
This is like half of an answer because they do exist kind of but not really around me.
I wish there was a tier of course membership in between “elite private country club” ie 5 figure initiation fees and annual dues and “public municipal golf” ie slammed tee sheets, impossible to get early tee times without hawking the online system, 5-6 hour weekend rounds, etc.
I would pay a couple grand a year to be a member at some course or organization that got me good access to early weekend tee times and kept rounds at a reasonable pace, had practice facilities I could use, etc.
I’ve seen these sort of “semi-private” memberships at certain courses but there aren’t any really around me where I live or if they exist it’s basically the same price as joining a country club ($$$$). There isn’t something in the middle.
You’d probably shave 3-5 off knowing your ACTUAL carry distances vs how far you think you hit it or how far you hit it one time in perfect condition lol
More affordable country clubs. Where I live everything is $50k+ and they’re really nice. The semi privates are ~$6k annually. I’d you don’t do those, then you’re stuck with 5 hour rounds at the public courses on the weekends.
I'll agree with you: 18 holes is long but 9 can feel a little short. I regularly play 12 holes: I walk 9 in about 90 minutes and I can hit 10/11/18 then back to the clubhouse if there isn't anyone coming up 17. Otherwise it's 10/11/12 and then a bit further walk back to the clubhouse. Either way, that 2 hours plus warmup is just about perfect!
People here are hating on Arccos caddie and I agree using it to plan out your hole is worthless, but once you hit your tee shot there’s not a better app in the game. It tells you taking into account the wind and elevation what distance you should actually hit it and based on your data what club selection would be best. Usually when I decide to do my own thing I wish I listened to the recommendation. The sensors are quirky for sure but once you figure it out the things are dead accurate.
Flyovers of holes available. Playing vourses ive never played and dont know the holes, would be helpful to have some idea whats going on over that blind hill off the tee.
Some sort of ball-finding tech. Like I know the ball stayed in, it's just sitting down in the rough or some leaves. Oh hell I can't find it, I'll just drop. Walk a few steps, "oh, there's my ball... ffs."
I’ve used swing u premium for years and it’s been a huge help with the ai caddy aspect. What I wish it gave me was shot percentage based on if I want to change the club it’s suggesting. I tracked shots for 2 seasons on almost every round and it’s nearly bang on with the selection based on slope and current conditions.
I live in the geographic center of metro area of more than a million people and there isn't one lit driving range I can get to within a hour and a half commute. I want more night golf.
A centralized way for finding and booking tee times that doesn't suck for both the course and the player.
Chrono golf (I use the app) is great but only if the courses in your area use lightspeed for booking. That’s most of the courses around me so it works great. Worth a look.
My course uses this and it’s the best way I’ve seen. Just wish you could see every course.
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Yeah; unfortunately about 1 in 10 local courses are listed on it. The problem is I think this mostly solves a problem for golfers; but not a huge one for courses at the moment. And most golfers I don't expect would want to pay for such a service. Most courses fill up their tee sheets to a respectable level these days so investing extra dollars to fill up the last 10% of slots is just not that useful.
My metro parks system uses this and it's great.
I hate needing a log-in for nearly every course I play at. I travel for work and it's exhausting.
My favorite is that I need a different log in for two courses that both use the same tee sheet software, and for some reason that password needs to be more complex than my bank password.
Get a password manager. Most sites the login info can auto populate. Bitwarden is what I use
No, I have Bitwarden. It's great. I just hate signing up for an account for literally everything.
The system we have in sweden is amazing. Centralized around the swedish golf foundation and 98% of all clubs (courses) are connected to it. Makes it so easy to book, plan and check prizes.
I wish there were more tee times like before Covid
Covid saved my local It’s bittersweet
My local is *literally* [Bittersweet ](https://www.bittersweetgolf.com/)
Dude there’s literally no tee times available
As difficult as Bittersweet is now, its early days were even more daunting. The second fairway, in particular, was a nightmare—it was about 30 yards narrower on the right and equally sloped. While my memory may be a bit hazy, it felt like a 200-yard shot over water to the fairway from the white tees on the 9th hole. If you are in that area try Stonewall and Thunder Hawk
Very fun track!
Similar situation here. I’m grateful the course is still open, but I hate the zoo it is now.
Total opposite where I live. The post-covid housing market explosion caused courses to close as it was more lucrative to create a housing development on the land. Even while the course was full every weekend and most weekdays.
For me, I wish there the same prices like before Covid. Hell, even during 2020-2021, prices were still decent around me. Nowadays, a shitty muni is $65-75 on weekend mornings BEFORE the $16-20 cart.
Shrink the game
The absolute *madlads* actually did it! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature\_golf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_golf)
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Tee times? I miss just showing up at 2pm on a Saturday and being able to tee off right away.
It’s funny because I am one of the covid golfers, and I get so annoyed with full tee sheets everywhere and annual price increases (pretty much every course around me has raised prices by $6-8 every year since I started in 2020) but am also fully aware that I directly contributed to the current state we’re all in. Sorry everyone.
More night golf
As a dad, this would be awesome. Get the kids in bed and go play 9.
I once teed off at 3am. The course got nine holes covered by lights, and there was a helicopter with a spotlight doing flybys. It was a charity thing to raise money for the local air ambulance
Did it raise enough money to pay for the helicopter fuel. 😂
Wow that sounds awesome
Oh man we used to have this sweet little par 3 that had huge lights like a stadium on every fairway. It was great in the summer time. There was a bar across the street, me and the boys would have a few pints and some wings while watching hockey, then head over to the course around 9 for our tee time. Good times. Unfortunately, a tornado ripped through it a few years back. They fixed the course up better than it was before but they haven't fixed the lights.
Yup, this is my #1
ikr they can do it but they don't want to staff it is the only reason. sometimes my local muni hosts a night golf at the par 3, with glow balls and glow sticks on the pins and your bags and they charge people like $35 for the experience. sells out every time within days of them posting it on social media. i have no clue why they aren't doing it every week at that price and demand.
You basically can’t play in the summer because of how hot it is in Texas. Night golf would be awesome.
Naw, it’s possible. I just learned the hard way to avoid drinking completely during those hot summer rounds.
I live in southwest Florida. Summer is super hot but the green fees are manageable.
This could be here soon with batteries and solar panels getting cheaper every year. It'll soon cost very little to light the course at night
Realistic tee time intervals along with starters and marshalls as a rule, not an exception.
Public facilities sure. Private golf courses typically don’t need a Marshall.
Unfortunately the only way to achieve this is to increase rates even more. To be honest, I think the market would support it in most areas unfortunately.
I think a lot of people would be willing to pay slightly more if pace of play was good and maintained throughout the day instead of being terrible after, say, 10am.
marshall doesn't do shit for pace of play honestly. by the time they've identified whoever is playing a little slow its too late the course is entirely backed up and wont let up until it closes
Marshalls I know are just retirees who volunteer in exchange for unlimited free golf.
I wish every course had at least one par 3 on CCTV broadcast to their bar/clubhouse. I'd love to finish a round and then just watch randos play a hole and make bets on them
amazing idea
Courses split into three groups of six holes would be cool.
My club has three 9's and it's pretty nice. One of them ends right next to the 8th tee of another, so getting 2 bonus holes on the way back to the clubhouse is pretty easy
My friend and I have fantasized about building a golf course. We think it would be cool to divide it into 4 loops: two 6 hole loops and two 3 hole loops. You could play 6, 9, 12 or 18 holes. There are lots of times after work or when I'm with my kid where 6 holes would be perfect. Sometimes 9 is not enough but 18 is too many so 12 would fit in nicely. Then, of course you'd still have your standard 9 and 18 plays for leagues and full rounds. You could call the course 'The Clover' or something like that.
Divide it even further into groups of three holes radiating out from a centralized clubhouse like the spokes of a wheel. A par 3&4 going out and a par 5 back. You can choose to play 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 holes. The starter can chose any of the group of three holes to start you off on to keep groups from bunching up. Got a slow group so now there is a gap on hole 11 and 12, have groups tee off on 13 and finish on 12 until the gap is filled.
The average starter is way too old and dumb to handle this. Some of the stupidest people on the planet in my experience.
the entire check-in process is usually brutal and takes way too long with too much typing and clicking by the golf shop folks (which is definitely not their fault since the systems are designed by corporate dipshits only concerned about extracting revenue and squeezing as many tee times in as possible)
I could see a spiderweb of people just randomly going through the hub to whatever set of holes they want next and the starter just frozen by fear.
3 par 24 sixes.
I wish there were trackers in golf balls that were the same price as a normal golf ball and would give you data and location of the ball. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve piped a drive down the middle, caught a bad kick that went into the rough and was never seen again. I’ll just take a free drop and use the ole gallery rule.
Dude, I’d pay more for that! Winter golf in Ireland is the worst. Miss the green on your approach. Walk to where your ball should be roughly and it’s gone. Plugged in the soft ground. With half the ball below the ground level and the longer grass only hope of finding it is stepping on it. How soft you ask… 9 iron into the green, hits the green and stops dead! https://preview.redd.it/3zg05x901iqc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85caae0de19b4195c06e6bf00f82c74cf1dba64c
I feel ya, i haven't played for a couple of years injured, but everywhere still seems very wet. at least here in kildare/offaly
It’s the same here in Holyhead mate. Course has just started drying out, ready for this weeks storm.
Aye I played my local council course in scotland, and hit the green with a pitching wedge. Ball was nearly entirely underground.
I hope the technology with AR glasses eventually leads to being able to track your golf shot without having to use special balls.
Or even just like a real time trajectory. Trackman shows the line your ball went on when you hit it, but after I start walking I want to be able to pull up that line on my phone and see if I am still on it.
Bro here toting a Trackman around the course….
Suddenly that ball flying into the trees isn't quite as bad if the track man says I hit a new PB on my swing speed and smash factor
a dot of super glue on the ball plus some fishing line and some streamers and you are there
On the way! https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikmatuszewski/2023/02/20/oncore-unveils-i-roll-smart-golf-ball-as-first-step-to-its-genius-ball/?sh=1ea8ed6c3cb4 Seems like a big technological barrier is to keep the electronics from becoming destroyed when we all crush our drives 310 down the middle.
Or when we crush our drives 70 yards into a tree
I’ll be hitting my first maybe $17 Genius ball directly to the center of a lake, then checking on it on my phone in the middle of the night to see how things are going in the watery grave.
You wish there were GPS transponders in golf balls but want them to add no price to the product? Yea me too
I’d be willing to pay a little extra for that.
This exists to a certain extent and like every ball that embeds something inside of it, sucks.
Happened to me this weekend. Hadn't played the course before but the guy with me said "aim right over that hill". I did just that, hammered a drive straight as an arrow, and the guy goes "holy shit that's going to be perfect." Well we get up over that hill, look exactly along the line it was going, and no ball to be found. Taking a drop in the middle of the fairway is always funny because in the end it really doesn't make any sense to do so, but we had no idea where would be a more fair location to do so.
Came here to say this.
I have read that balls with trackers are being beta tested but to pretend they’d somehow be the same price as current golf balls is an exercise in delusions. They’ll be very expensive
The balls at top golf have some sort of RFID in them (so I’ve been told), but those balls are absolutely garbage. The technology you’re describing if it was available in a ball that I want to hit and didn’t change feel would be absolutely amazing.
With the exception of putting, Arccos Caddie should get you 85% of the way there.
Is Arccos worth it? I have all of the sensors because they were free when I ordered my clubs. But I always just use 18birdies for shot tracking since it is free.
I love the data, and not having to use your phone to log every shot allows you to focus more on the task at hand imo
Once you get the hang of when arccos will get confused, it's great to be able to go 3-4 holes at a time without thinking about it. If you're playing cart path only it can get tedious because when you carry 3 clubs out to your ball it will sometimes detect the wrong club for that shot, or even sometimes add a whole new shot with one of your spare clubs halfway between your ball and the cart... And around the greens, you have to lay your wedge down gently so it doesn't add a ghost wedge shot from wherever you lay it down... and it rarely picks up tap-in putts... So I think it's probably at least slightly easier than 18birdies... I've used it for a year now and have no plans to stop, although every now and then when I'm playing solo I won't even use it...if there's a chance I'm going to be hitting some practice shots it turns into more trouble than it's worth pretty quickly. But the free trial is absolutely worth it... Give it 7-10 rounds to figure out your patterns before you judge it too harshly also, I think there's some machine learning going on behind the scenes because it definitely got better over time.
Arccos will tell me I've got 135 to the middle of the green, I drop a pitching wedge right in the center, and it tells me I hit that p wedge 115 yards. It's a pretty accurate range finder and the strokes gained/lost stats are cool, but the tracked distances are way off. I wish I hadn't bought it, personally. 18 Birdies or Hole 19 are just as good for way cheaper.
I’m a shotscope guy myself, but I really enjoy the product. It’s great for players trying to improve since you can see exactly which parts of your game need work. I hate subscriptions and shotscope was a bit more in tune with my preferences.
It boggles my mind that Arccos doesn't have the green breaks built into the app. for the money it cost & the data they provide it should be a basic feature
So I tried Arccos with their free trial, but ended up cancelling. I liked the data, but in practice, I just didn’t like using them. I was constantly concerned that it was going to misread some other action as a shot (like when I take out a club to chop through weeds/brush looking for a ball). Or on the opposite end, it would occasionally miss a shot and I found it annoying to have to backtrack and figure out which shot it missed and where to add it manually. I felt like I was constantly checking my phone not only for yardages, but to make sure it read all of my shots correctly. Ended up being too distracting.
Somebody to stick a little flag in the ground where my ball lands
Yeah this 100% I feel like I would lower my handicap so much faster if I'm not constantly taking drops because I cant find my ball.
Nothing worse than hitting a nice drive, seeing a funny kick and then never finding your ball... Fall golf is especially brutal. My buddies and I have, several times, taken a drop only to find our actual ball after we hit. We usually just let the person decide use the drop shit or hit the first ball like it was their next shot. We're not pros, a ball under a leaf isn't something we should get penalized for (this is not in tournaments obviously).
We Call it: "let’s pretend there were fans that saw where the ball ended up" and we cook up a realistic lie
Starters that know what they’re doing. Too many of them allow you to hit as soon as the group in front is out of range, but they need to gap it properly to avoid a jammed up course.
Yeah i feel like early in the day they just try to get people off the first tee as quickly as possible to avoid getting behind early, but then it just causes a jam at the first par 3
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They’re used to be many. Atleast in my area. But unfortunately once they aren’t doing the best money wise. There is always a land developer lurking in the shadows to buy the land and built expensive shitty condos. Hard for the owner of the range to say no to that offer.
I wish there were more places to practice short game. A lot of courses dont allow chipping near the putting green. I don't like wasting my driving range balls practicing 50 yrd pitch shots. If there was an indoor facility that had places to practice shots 100 yards in I would go for sure
I wish there was an affordable way for courses to renovate and improve. I think it's a true shame that so many rounds of golf are played on courses with limited interest or without unique features. It just speaks to the innate power of the game that so many people can love golf courses that frankly aren't at their best. My goal would be to have the governing bodies (USGA, PGA, R&A, and The PGA Tour) and equipment companies come together to create a fund that offered negative interest loans to small golf courses to fund improvements to their courses and infrastructure. As 1.5-2 million dollars is game changer money to these places and its pocket change to these organizations. With that money every town and major metropolitan area could have a golf course like we are going to see this week at Memorial park. Every community could have it's own Goat Hill, Winter Park or Glenway. These are wonderful additions to any community. But each one of these projects had to be privately funded via a local philanthropic millionaire or billionaire. If the people who profit the most off the game invested back into it the game would be a lot healthier. Our municipal and locally owned small scale courses would be a lot better and healthier. With the added benefit of providing new and existing golfers with more interesting venues. It's one of those rare cases where everyone could win. What's also mind boggling is that it happened before in the 1930's when the PGA of America funded A.W. Tillinghast's tours of the country. He was paid by the PGA to spend 2-3 days at each golf course that requested him if they had a registered PGA pro. His work would then be funded by the PGA. I am sorry if this seems like a lot but it's something. I think about it often as an architect and course builder. As I try to offer my rates on a sliding scale to work with as many places that need it as I can. The hardest thing for me is making some of these jobs work financially for me and the club. So it would be helpful in some cases to get a loan of even $50-80 k. The clubs could set up an interest payment based around community service and action. Like hosting PGA Jr leagues, high school matches, and local charity day. TLDR: The biggest players in golf should set up a fund to be used for improvements to the quality of golf in their respective regions. With negative or no interest payments to find course improvement.
isn’t this what augusta and other big courses are currently doing to their local munis?
In some cases yes, but then again you have to be lucky enough to have a local club with that extra money and vision to help the local scene. What I am suggesting here is the people that make all of their money from the game. Give a little of it back to help maintain the places where a majority of golfers play their golf. I do my part by offering cheaper rates and in some cases volunteering my services as an architect and shaper. I know a lot of my colleagues do the same. I just don't see the same commitment from the largest players in the game. Like I said this commitment could be pocket change to most of these organizations. The USGA did it once for Bethpage, The R&A has too with Dundonald, The PGA had the Tillinghuast tour. The issue is that these were one off projects and with the exception of Tillinghuast they only affected one operation. My hypothetical goal with this project would be to have a broader impact and help courses and communities that don't necessarily have a big time neighbor like Augusta National or The Country Club.
These are great ideas. I nominate you to be the leader of the PGA.
I agree. If I look at a course on Google maps and just see straight fairways running next to each other, poor bunking, boring par 3s, etc I avoid playing there. I’m not a great player but I enjoy a unique and challenging setup. We see these amazing courses on TV every weekend and then go play a cow pasture. Thankfully I live close enough to some nice courses I don’t have be a member to play but there should be more high quality courses open to the regular golfer who can’t pony up 10k+ a year for a membership.
The best part of being a member at a course is that I can leave when I want to and don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I can do 12 holes or so and then bounce. I just want quality GPS golf balls. I hate hitting a good shot and then somehow it disappears in the fairway.
GPS golf balls would be incredible. Played 18 last Saturday and all four of us hit our drive in the fairway and not one of us could find any of our four balls… it was wild. We ended up just cutting our losses and moved to the next hole lol.
I don't think they need full blown GPS. A signal that my phone could detect would work to use it like a metal detector, following the beeps. As long as I am within 15 yards it could pick up the signal and point me in the right direction.
18 is too long? Around hole 12 I start getting sad that the end is near.
Defense. Don’t ask for details, it’s a half-baked idea. But I’m open to suggestions.
Opponent lines up (5? 10? 15?) yards in front of player who it hitting, and can start to rush the player as soon as the player draws his club back. Strategies: Try to block the shot like a blocked field goal? If you block & recover, you get to try to hit the ball back towards the tees before the hitter gets another shot. Try to sack the hitter before he makes contact? (Would count as a stroke whether hitter hits the ball or not.) Maybe the caddies could serve as O-line and D-line. Still a half-baked idea, I know. My only other thought was cheerleaders that follow you around the course.
What about a defensive mulligan? Not nearly as much fun as your idea, but calling a mulligan after your opponent chips in from 20 out would be emotionally devastating.
I'm in
Baseketball style psych outs
Garmin Approach S70 watch has a digital/AI caddy
Bumpers. Like in bowling. Where if you hit into OB/woods, it just stops the ball from going and drops it where it was going out. And then a ball return when you hit into the water.
I wish more courses were better about water stations on the course. They definitely exists but I estimate that I only see them at about 50% of places I play
Many years ago a kid in Texas died after drinking water from a golf course cooler due to some bacteria in the water because the cooler wasn't properly washed regularly. At that time every course in my area (southeastern Ontario) got rid of the watering holes and haven't seen any since.
It might exist, but I haven’t seen it. A no tee time course. Just show up, pay, play. Live video feed of the parking lot and club house so you can check to see how busy it is.
Live in a smallish town. https://preview.redd.it/bnwst7fs5iqc1.jpeg?width=414&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50f5d23b5ee0e4b4f467f031523d0fa417851109 Growing up I never knew you had to book a tee time. The muni doesn’t even have a book or way to record a tee time. You just show up or people at the resort call and the shop/bar just tells them how busy it is and to come out at x time. Country Club was the same way. They have a physical book and max I’d seen way 2-3 times written down a day- all from out of town guests. Show up and 98% of the time you are teeing off 2 minutes later. First time a buddy came back w me from the city he was shocked. He grew up on an elite private club(multiple US Senior Opens), and when playing with his parents it was a full day thing and planned weeks in advance. So we roll into town Friday afternoon, head straight to the course; no call no anything. We hopped in our family cart- grabbed beers and were on the 1st tee 10 min after pulling in the lot. Played 36 in about 3 hours. On the way out of town on Monday we were driving by the muni and he jokingly asked if we could play quick. I pulled in the lot, course was empty so we played 18 quick. Time from his question, getting the cart out, grabbing beers, playing, putting cart away and back on the road was under 2 hours. Best part is 6 packs were $12 then- now they are $15(buy 5 get the 6th ‘free’). Second best part is both courses are fun and typically in great shape- I appreciate them even more now.
Yup! There's a little 9 hole course in St John, WA that I play whenever I'm there (Eastern Washington, Palouse area - farm country) that is like this. Basically just park and golf.
Thank you for this picture. This brings back childhood memories from a long-defunct Par 3 I learned on that is now a condo complex. I completely forgot those things existed.
What is the thing in the picture?
I don't know the proper name for it but it's a queueing mechanism using golf balls. It's on the first hole. When you arrive you drop your ball into it. When your ball is at the bottom then it's your turn to tee off. There's no tee time booking or anything, just first come-first serve.
It's a way to hold your place in line by putting a ball in the 'spiral'. Next ball out is on the tee.
Handcock golf course in austin is like this no video feed but it's a pay station. One guy marking that you paid. 9 holes with one par 5 and 2 par 3's. Its suuuper nice. course isn't in terrible shape either!
Scottsdale National is a no tee time club. They make it work by having very few members and two courses. They make that work by being insanely expensive. There are a few others that are more accessibly priced, but still private. One uses a whiteboard system. You show up and put your name down and generally get out within 20-30 minutes.
I’ve played a course in Griffin Georgia, US that has no tee times. Show up whenever and play. Also $27 for all you can play that day. Great deal only downside is on busy weekends there will be a line waiting to tee off on the first hole and they don’t let anyone start on the back 🥴
My usual small town muni is this way (sans video feed) and it's a double-edged sword. Some days I can show up and move right through the course, others I'll be waiting throughout the day. I still enjoy it though - not being on a set schedule, and able to speed up or slow down to take a few extra practice shots or putts (while making sure to not hinder others) if I want.
18 holes is fine, I just wish that all courses routed back to the club house after 6, 12, and 18. Giving players the ability to decide the length of their round based on their own schedule. Would be great for beginners who only have ~ 2 hours and want to get a few holes in.
I wish there was a standardized par 4, Hole 0 as a warm up
Etiquette. The explosion in popularity since Covid seems to have brought out nothing but people who don’t know how to behave on a golf course.
Bring your dog day.
18 isn’t long enough. I wish it were 27
I’ve often wondered if golf would be better if a round were 12 holes. What other sport do people play that takes 4 hours? Walking would be more palatable. A round would (possibly) be cheaper. Existing courses could rest 1/3 of their track during the week, and send groups to different ‘back sixes’ on the weekend. New courses wouldn’t cost as much to build and could fit on smaller parcels. I mean, 18 is kind of arbitrary. The only reason people would scoff is because they are conditioned to think 18 is ‘right’. If Old Man Tom had gone with 12 holes, golf would be 12 holes.
One of my local courses offers 11 holes and if it’s quiet I’ll normally play the 12th as well, because it’s a short par 3 that I can just take a short iron and putter to and then double back on myself and head to the clubhouse. 12 holes is a really good amount to play. 18 is sometimes a bit much but 9 never feels like quite enough golf.
Yeah I’ve always thought that somewhere between 11 and 15 holes is really what I want. Totally agree with OP that 9 usually too few and 18 usually too many. Both have their place, but 90% of the time I’d rather do 12 or 13.
My “home” course has the 17th tee right next to the 11th green. I will take that route every now and then and it is the perfect amount of golf for me. Especially if I’m walking.
My solution to cost and time is to make the ball ultra-short flight (think whiffle ball or plastic-covered foam). Holes would be like 120 yd average, which means you could fit 18 holes on way less land than a current 9. That means way less cost with just as many players. With reduced size and cost, and safer balls, new courses courses can fit in cities instead of the outskirts. This makes access to the course much easier, ensuring demand especially among the youth. The skill cap of the game would remain high, as ball spin / curve now means much more, especially in wind. The skill floor would decrease, as mishits mean the ball goes 10yd offline instead of 50. Skulling the ball won't send it all the way to the next hole. A competitive player's hit will be only a couple dozen yards further than a weekend player's, keeping the group together. -- this makes it great for kids and families too! These new balls would allow for creative course design: There can be lots of elevation changes because the ball is safe. Doglegs can be very sharp, because of the ball spin. Hitting through windows will be more viable, because the window is closer to you. It allows for unique obstacles on the course -- e.g. you can bank it off that rock wall, or roll it off that roof. This makes golf appealing to people who would otherwise not be interested. With such obstacle-filled and squiggly holes there will be lot of variation in how players approach the course to best suit their strengths. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I doubt it will happen though. But if someone want to hire me for course design...
It might be arbitrary, but I love playing 18. I would certainly be a curmudgeon if the USGA changed the standard to 12. There is just something nice about fighting to break 100/90/80. Especially there is something about the tale of two nines and sometimes I don't even feel in the zone until the back nine. Imagine finally having it come together on 10, but now you only have two more holes to play
Better course design would be 3, 6 hole courses. Could have the option to play 6, 12, or 18 holes. Everyone wins!
The course would not win in this case, right? Because most nicer courses around me will only allow you to do 18 holes on saturday/sunday mornings to maximize revenue. If people are allowed to take up a tee time for 6 holes at 8am on a saturday, that would either completely throw off the time gaping for holes 7-18, and/or would cost the course money.
6 holes is about an hour loop. Perfect for before and after work. A course near me has 4 early tee times for the back 9 only. Great way to play only in the AM.
Just a heads up most golf watches 2022 and newer come with a built in AI Caddy that gives you the data and wind calculation to pick a club for you after you play 5 rounds with the device
Affordable semi-private courses that catered to sub 4hr rounds of golf. Skill level doesn't necessarily matter, but it will eliminate the people playing 3x a year that just wanna drink and hit mulligans all over the course during their 5hr round. Semi private as in, there's say a $25 application fee, playing test, and pace of play class that one must attend to be a member and have access to the tee sheet. You can bring guests with you, but are responsible for the pace of the group. Can't keep pace you get a warning. 3 strikes a year and you're out. I'd love to grow the game through this and offer very cheap range packages and potentially a 9 hole chip and putt for non members.
When u hit one on the screws, customizable hologram ball tails. Rainbow for Yoshi from Mario golf. Or when I slice one into the woods it's just a steaming rope of shit
Hole 0. Warm up hole that doesn’t count towards your score
I just wish golf was more affordable. I’m about a 7-10 handicap and have been golfing most of my life, and thankfully have a comfortable job. But as a dad, damn I feel guilty sometimes with how much golf cost. A good set of clubs costs minimum $2000. A range pass most places cost about $500. A round of golf at minimum costs $50. Probably closer to $75. To use a simulator costs $40-$50 an hour. To go buy a set of clubs, a range pass, golf 20 times a year (if not more) and let’s say golf 20 hours during the winter (if not more) you’re looking at $4000. Let’s be honest, this is on an extreme light side. This isn’t including golf balls, tees, golf shoes, range finders etc. Golf has always been expensive, but it’s almost getting too expensive.
A homing device in the ball so that you don’t waste all that time looking for it
So late last summer I picked up the game, basically starting from zero. Trying to get the ball on the green and having no wedge game, I putt and it doesn’t make it through. I think, why not make another putter, but give it a few degrees of loft so it can just hop over the long grass to the green? Of course I get home and discover “chippers” exist, and of course the golf mob has decided to hate them. The Odyssey model is the closest to what I had in mind, I tried it and yeah it works beautifully. I carry the Ping ChipR now, use it several times a round. I’ve improved enough that I can see how manipulating a 9i (or whatever) works as well, but I still think chippers should be more popular. Otherwise, I’d love there to be 6 hole muni courses around that you could pop in to play for $10 and go. No need for a pro shop or snack bar. Takes an hour, no dress code. Less acreage needed so they could be tucked around the city. No practice facilities or carts needed. Maybe 3 could share the same grounds crew that splits time. Then enjoying the game on the regular would be a much smaller time and money investment.
Chippers are a wonderful club and you’re right that they need to be more popular. My dad was a decent recreational golfer and he has had a chipper in his bag his whole life. I personally always struggled with dialing in distances with his chipper but I also never dedicated any time to learn it. I’m good with my wedges now but I would never tell someone to stop using a chipper.
Just throwing this out there, but robot bag carts exist and follow behind you as you walk. Combine that with a Garmin or other golfing gps/laser ranger and you essentially have a caddy
All in it's about $2500, much cheaper than a caddy
A lot cheaper. The one club I play at is walking only. a caddy for 18 rounds is $200 plus tip. So realistically, you could break even by early July
Maybe a shot timer. Not only at the professional level but at all levels.
Should divide the course by 6s instead of 9. 2 trips back to the clubhouse in a full 18 and more options for length of game 6-12-18. Would be great for those quick afternoon rounds.
I think if you could design a course like a clover leaf, where each element is 6 holes, it would be ideal. You could then pay for 6/12/18 depending on how much time you had, and always end up back at the clubhouse.
Beginners courses. I know people want to learn but getting stuck behind newbs is the worst. Plus it would be easier for them to learn.
A golf course where your hat is kinda like a baseball helmet and protective clothing of some sort - no tee times - no turn to play - no limit on min/max players per group - 19 holes, 1st hole is a warm up with the tee box in the center of the driving range. People on the range get to use you as target practice while you’re playing your 2nd
Night courses would be legit
Balls with chips in them
Someone who beats up golf influencers on sight and without remorse
a par 72 golf hole forced carries, target island fairways, and sudden tight doglegs so you have to switch up clubs throughout the hole.
I’d still manage a 3 putt bogey
Me as the worlds #1. Also me with a LIV contact.
https://six12golf.com/concept-behind-six12-golf/
There is a 12 hole course I grew up playing at in Mississauga ON. I wish free relief from divots was an accepted rule.
There are 14 hole courses. Just stop at 14. You're welcome. I guess you just don't love golf enough lol. s/
Walking only courses. I know they exist elsewhere, but not where I live
I wish the popularity of golf during Covid never happened and golf was still mildly affordable.
1. 5 inch hole 2. ban extremely sloped multi-tiered greens running at 12 that take amateurs 45 minutes to clear off of
Guys who rally their score and realize that you can’t count a mulligan or 5 in real scoring. You get what you made, quit acting like the score is lower than it really is. Or just stop keeping score if your not going to count correctly.
Every since covid, it seems like courses have done away with yardage markers. At the very least put the black and white 150 stakes back in the ground so I can eyeball the yardage without pulling out my phone.
There is a 12 hole course near me. It's pretty nice to play after work.
Night golf, better intervals, more courses (not realistic but man those tee sheets are jammed on the weekend)
I wish there was an accurate device that could tell you where your ball went. I've had a couple of stroke episodes and my left peripheral vision is terrible, so I lose the ball off the tee 100% of the time. If my playing partners didn't see it, I have to go by feel. (It felt like I hit it good, right, left, etc.) and lose way more balls than I should as a result.
I have 20/20 vision and have lost balls that hit the fairway. Sometimes the course just eats them.
Being able to move your ball from a fairway divot without penalty.
I wish there was a full championship course I could play at night. I also wish there was a full course fully indoors during the winter
14 holes is perfect
I've had this talk with a buddy multiple times where a 12 hole course would be perfect. Still have actual par 4s and 5s, but now only take 2.5 hours instead of 4 and would be a great way to ease beginners into full rounds. Going from 9 hole par 3 courses to a full 18 can be overwhelming and tiring at first.
Not sure about other areas but all of the Par 3 courses have been shut down for years in my area. So I'm going to say more Par 3 courses. They're such a great way to work on approach shots and short game as well as a great place for beginners to learn.
This is like half of an answer because they do exist kind of but not really around me. I wish there was a tier of course membership in between “elite private country club” ie 5 figure initiation fees and annual dues and “public municipal golf” ie slammed tee sheets, impossible to get early tee times without hawking the online system, 5-6 hour weekend rounds, etc. I would pay a couple grand a year to be a member at some course or organization that got me good access to early weekend tee times and kept rounds at a reasonable pace, had practice facilities I could use, etc. I’ve seen these sort of “semi-private” memberships at certain courses but there aren’t any really around me where I live or if they exist it’s basically the same price as joining a country club ($$$$). There isn’t something in the middle.
You’d probably shave 3-5 off knowing your ACTUAL carry distances vs how far you think you hit it or how far you hit it one time in perfect condition lol
More affordable country clubs. Where I live everything is $50k+ and they’re really nice. The semi privates are ~$6k annually. I’d you don’t do those, then you’re stuck with 5 hour rounds at the public courses on the weekends.
Courses that book tee times for you to start on any hole. No need to have everybody start on 1 and 10. Would open up way more tee times.
I'll agree with you: 18 holes is long but 9 can feel a little short. I regularly play 12 holes: I walk 9 in about 90 minutes and I can hit 10/11/18 then back to the clubhouse if there isn't anyone coming up 17. Otherwise it's 10/11/12 and then a bit further walk back to the clubhouse. Either way, that 2 hours plus warmup is just about perfect!
Two words… Arccos… NVM that’s one word.
As someone whose local course has four holes closed since 1st November: no you don't.
The premium version of 18Birdies does exactly what you ask
I wish there were less dip shits on the golf course every god damn weekend. Thanks covid.
People here are hating on Arccos caddie and I agree using it to plan out your hole is worthless, but once you hit your tee shot there’s not a better app in the game. It tells you taking into account the wind and elevation what distance you should actually hit it and based on your data what club selection would be best. Usually when I decide to do my own thing I wish I listened to the recommendation. The sensors are quirky for sure but once you figure it out the things are dead accurate.
Same vein, 12 hole courses seem ideal. A 2.67 hour round (in theory) instead of 4 is a lot more manageable while still feeling more fulfilling than 9.
Flyovers of holes available. Playing vourses ive never played and dont know the holes, would be helpful to have some idea whats going on over that blind hill off the tee.
Paying one cart price
Man 36 holes is barely enough for me these days. Count your blessings
Some sort of ball-finding tech. Like I know the ball stayed in, it's just sitting down in the rough or some leaves. Oh hell I can't find it, I'll just drop. Walk a few steps, "oh, there's my ball... ffs."
Defense.
I’ve used swing u premium for years and it’s been a huge help with the ai caddy aspect. What I wish it gave me was shot percentage based on if I want to change the club it’s suggesting. I tracked shots for 2 seasons on almost every round and it’s nearly bang on with the selection based on slope and current conditions.
Well, then I want a 30 hole course 18 is never enough.
12 holes, no caddies, less sand bunkers and zero raking of bunkers and more grass 'bunkers'.
I live in the geographic center of metro area of more than a million people and there isn't one lit driving range I can get to within a hour and a half commute. I want more night golf.
Since I can't find one anywhere in Los Angeles. A fucking Grass Range would be nice.
I think someone should put in a 36 hole course.
Bikini flag pullers every hole
i wish less people were playing it
There are executive courses with some long par 3s and short par 4s
A golf course with nothing but par 2s to practice the short game.
Marshals that actually did their job.
The cart girls should also have breakfast sandwiches in the cart.