Golf Australia – August 2019

I

once suggested to a group of emotionally

invested, concerned golfers that there

was perhaps a better alternative to a

small, cramped 18-hole course.

Instead, what about a full-sized, well-spread

12-hole course with the remaining land used to

build an inventive short, scaled-down version of

the game suited to quick golf and kids learning

how to play free of worrying they might be in the

way or wearing the wrong clothes.

The suggestion was met with some derision

with one sning disdainfully, “Is there any

precedent for 12-hole golf?”

“Well, no there isn’t – aside from fifteen Open

Championships at Prestwick when, back in the

day, it was a 12-hole course.”

There really wasn’t far the inquisitor could go

from there.

Golf has been somewhat hidebound since The

Old Course at St Andrews was reduced down from

22 and 18 holes became the accepted convention

of what constituted a ‘real’ course.

The questions for the contemporary game is

whether those who control golf should consider

more seriously the possibilities of embracing the

idea of smaller, more inventive golf better suited

to a particular piece of land?

And if clubs have space to make some extra

golf what sort of golf should they embrace? A 19th

hole? What about a short nine-hole course, the

best of which in Australia is at Lake Karrinyup?

Or a wild putting green resembling something

caddies made at St Andrews in the middle of the

19th-century that became The Ladies Putting

Course, perhaps better known as The Himalayas?

Is anyone brave enough to make a great

12-hole course or reinvent a struggling club by

selling o’ land and making a great nine, 12- or

15-hole course?

Are golfers so bound by familiar scores – 65,

72, 80, 90, 100 – they need to measure everything

against the standard 18-hole numbers they are so

golf australia | AUGUST 2019 89