With Time Comes Change

I think most of us agree that a five-hour round is not ideal. Golf as a hard slog played through a minefield of hazards is neither fun nor entertaining and this is not helped when the golf course is extremely long. In the future golf architects should be looking at designing golf holes where the features promote fast play without hindering opportunities for quality shot making. Moreover, length should be secondary to interest and holes should be interesting before anything else.

I would also like to see more pitch-and-putt courses being built. It was on these shorter, less intimidating layouts where many of us who were raised outside Asia started out in the game. In many ways it’s hard to comprehend why there are not more of these types of facilities in this part of the world because they cover smaller parcels of land which ultimately means they’re less expensive to design, build and maintain.

Cricketers are no longer always kitted out in their traditional all-white uniforms; instead, for the shorter forms of the game at least, they are dressed in colourful attire, much like those watching at the grounds. To go further it is much less restrictive in every way and the rules are designed so that the game is fun to watch and play. I think future generations would be more drawn to golf if we identified ways of lessening some of the stringent rules that govern it.

Golf is not dead on the ground - it will be around long after I am gone - but should it continue along the same path knowing that with time comes change? We have seen how the game of cricket has adapted - without losing its core traditions and values - by becoming more exciting to watch and play, particularly for those in the younger age brackets.

There is surely a lesson in this.