Golf courses can provide great views and when compared with other mainstream sports have few equals in terms of setting. There are golf courses beside oceans and golden beaches, ones that cut through forests and parklands, others with spectacular mountain views and even some which finish within a minute walk of the centre of towns. For wildlife lovers you can be rewarded with encounters with birds, deer, foxes, squirrels, butterflies, eagles, geese, rabbits, ducks, and even snakes and alligators.
You can practice golf anywhere too — at the golf course, on a driving range , in the garden, the living room — anywhere. Non-golfers may think that playing the same golf course over and over again must inevitably get a bit boring. But one of the great things about the game of golf is that are so many different types of games you can play that there are endless ways to enjoy the game in different ways.
Unless it is a competition there is nothing forcing players to play a standard round of 18 holes. If you want to play less you can, and many do simply playing 9 holes or loops of a few holes which take you from and bring you back to the clubhouse. You can also try cross-country golf if you want which involves playing from the tee of one hole to the green of another. You can also invent your own rules for your game on any given day.
In a game with friends we used to add an extra 3 rules to the game. The second allowed you to take a mulligan — in other words get another go at a shot — while the third allowed you to call a mulligan on your opponent and make them play the same shot again.
The last one was always particularly enjoyable to enforce after a friend had hit a particularly good shot! Playing with fewer clubs is a great way to experiment with your game and have a bit of fun getting inventive and creative with your golf shots.
There is also evidence to suggest playing from different tees increases player enjoyment as does occasionally simply throwing away the scorecard. In a game where normally every shot counts without exception, it can be fun to just stop keeping score for a round or three! It is not and that is why players are able to play for such a large part of their lives if they want to.
That is uphill, downhill and through all sorts of different terrains including sand and thick rough. Indeed playing golf regularly has been proven to deliver a number of health benefits including improved sleep, better fitness through burning more calories and reduced stress. Golf also gives players a constant competitive challenge both with the course itself and with playing partners to let them exercise those competitive juices.
This the main reason why you find so many retired professional sportspeople, and indeed many who are not, playing golf. It gives them a chance to exercise those competitive instincts again while doing something physical. And as every golfer will tell you there can be nothing more satisfying than enjoying a hard-earned victory over a close friend which you can replay again and again in the years to come!
A great shot can be immediately followed by one of the worst ones you have ever hit and it is the quest to see if the next shot you play will be another brilliant one which golfers get addicted to sometimes. That moment when we golfers get lucky and hit that shot like a professional would we get an exciting dopamine hit which we then get addicted to chasing again and again and again.
At a more basic level, golfers like humans, like to watch things fly. People have enjoyed watching things, like birds, fly since the dawn of time.
Golf is also about making something fly and players will spend hours and hours hitting a golf ball to watch it fly. Playing golf is also meditative. Just a few short decades ago, golf was known exclusively as a sport for white men. Just think about this: until , PGA rules stipulated that you had to be white to be a member.
Tiger Woods changed this perception when he was the first African-American to reach the pinnacle of the sport by winning the Masters tournament. Tiger Woods inspired a generation. His tenacity, dedication to the physical side of the sport, and sheer charisma turned golf mainstream.
TV ratings shot through the roof, the country registered more players than ever, and golfers became superstars. The best golf courses around the world offer stunning greens, off-course entertainment, food, and some are even fully-fledged resorts. Many people choose golf because it offers an excellent overall package.
They can enjoy the sport itself, but the setting gives the opportunity to make it so much more. Golfers will often take their families on holiday, take trips with their buddies, or take some time away with colleagues or business associates.
Golf can be mixed with other leisure activities, enjoying the sun, and having a nice evening meal or drink. A great way to experience the courses as well is to attend tournaments. There are so many tournaments like the PGA Championship where they play on some of the best golf courses in the world.
Except for golf. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour is steaming into the analytics age at full speed. Speaking of gambling, live-betting and daily fantasy are creating more opportunities than ever to turn your Sundays into paydays.
NBC and CBS have experimented with futuristic audio and every shot from every hole broadcasts to take fans deeper than ever before into the minds and actions of their favorite players. The essence of what makes a golf course has receded back to its roots. Less trees, more room to roam, more challenge from the rest of the property.
Feel free to drop wherever, even in the middle of the fairway. Want to make this par 4 even more drivable? Bounce around between tee boxes. Nowadays, for golf-talk purposes at least, the 19th hole is anywhere you want it to be. There are a number of online channels and digital clubhouses that go wherever your smartphone is. Make an ace on your favorite par 3? This assumes, of course, you had someone else take the photo. No witnesses and the merits of your hole in one will be properly litigated.
Want to work through your spiciest opinions on the PGA Tour? Redditors and Refugees have regularly used these platforms to schedule meetups at courses somewhere in between their keyboards.
At Pinehurst, sepia-toned traditions now go hand in hand with Instagram-ready amenities, including a par-3 track, The Cradle, and a putting course, Thistle Dhu, where the tee markers double as cup-holders for your beer.
For Pashley, a telling moment came this spring, when he overheard a guest, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, ask a bellhop if he was properly attired to go bat around some balls on Thistle Dhu. Before golf boomed in , the 12 years leading up to it were pretty rough. Hundreds of courses closed their doors — public tracks and private clubs alike. Call them up on a Monday or Tuesday and you might be surprised what you find.
The hottest Topgolf of ? That would probably be in Augusta, Ga. A similar trend is happening with Popstroke. Count us all the way in!
Embrace the game: Here are 20 reasons to love golf — right now! Playing golf is popular again The game boomed in the second half of Courtesy Callaway.
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