What is golf?

When I was a kid, golf meant just one thing: golf. There was only one kind of golf. What I mean to say is golf was golf. There was only one definition of the game. ¶ Back then, it only involved using a club (a golf club) to hit a white ball (a golf ball) from a relatively flat area of turf (a tee) down a wide expanse of turfgrass (a fairway or rough) toward a relatively circular area of turfgrass (a green) that had a hole and pole with a flag on it, all of which collectively was known as a golf course.

The intent was to hit the ball using the fewest amount of strokes into that hole, which was 4 and a quarter inches in diameter and had in it a cup.

Don’t get me wrong, the definition of golf above is still the game that those of us in the traditional golf business know all too well. We’ve spent our entire careers frustrating golfers by improving the condition and maintenance levels of the aforementioned golf course. And as we all know, the only thing that hasn’t improved in our industry over many years is the golfers’ abilities.

However, to others in today’s world, golf means so much more.

I’m involved in managing a golf course that is on the verge of implementing FootGolf, in which the players kick a soccer ball into a hole that’s 21 inches in diameter. This game is played on the same golf course that traditional golfers use. The theory is to expose new golfers to a new game, get them to the golf course, and eventually transition them to traditional golf. Along the way, you generate more revenues for the facility (FootGolf fees, increased food/beverage, merchandise sales, etc.)

And now there is TopGolf, which is a multi-tiered facility that looks from the outside much like a traditional practice facility found at a traditional golf course. Except it is so much more. With TopGolf, microchip technology resides inside the golf balls, which are hit at several targets with real golf clubs. But that’s not the full story. The main reason TopGolf has been so successful is that it is exposing a whole new segment of our society to a game that, while not traditional golf in the terms described above, is nonetheless exposing people to golf in an extremely non-traditional way.

TopGolf is amazingly popular with Millennials (ages 18-30) because it makes golf fun for them. With TVs, a party atmosphere, alcohol, live music, meeting space, etc., it has become a social destination to go to as much for food/beverage and social interaction as for hitting golf balls. But the bottom line is that these venues are golf complexes that have proven to be incredibly successful.

The other day I was at my cabin in northeastern Arizona, and my wife and I were walking our dog when we saw a bunch of people walking around in the forest among the pine trees. On closer inspection, these people appeared to be throwing something at the trees. You’ve probably guessed it; they were playing Disc Golf, and it wasn’t the trees they were aiming at. It was raised baskets on a pole that serve as the green/hole for the game.

I don’t have space to talk about night golf, video golf, golf with 15-inch holes and other variations of non-traditional golf that are attracting people.

Golf is no longer just what those of us involved in the game in the traditional sense grew up with and worked at for years. It can mean something different to different people. Today there are so many choices for people (particularly young people) in how they spend their time and discretionary income.

Golf is so much more than what I described at the start of this column. If you asked a cross-section of society the question “What is golf?” you’d get a lot more answers compared to when I was a kid.

I’m getting old.