DEBATE: What would you change in golf? GolfMagic readers have their say...

Relief from divots in the fairway? Making the hole bigger? If you could change one thing about golf, what would it be?

Matt Chivers's picture
Fri, 5 Nov 2021
DEBATE: What would you change in golf? GolfMagic readers have their say...

Golf is one of the most popular activities in the world, but no sport is perfect and the rules of the game present many complexities.

We posed an interesting question to our readers and it brought out some intriguing and fascinating responses. We asked: "You can change one thing in golf. What would you change?"

It is a very difficult question because a change could potentially have a negative impact on the sport, but there was a trend in some of the responses that we received.

One stand-out idea was to allow relief from a divot hole in the middle of the fairway. Many fans believe that if you drive your ball down the middle of the fairway, you should not be punished by a dent in the ground that someone else has made.

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"Just a dumb rule to be penalized for a good drive," one fan said.

"I’ve always felt this to be an unfair rule - especially where there is a gathering area on a fairway," another fan said.

"No playing from divots in your own fairway!!" one fan commented.

You could argue that the misfortune of finding a divot hole in the short grass is all part of the game and luck will level itself out eventually. However, it is certainly a valid consideration. 

Some golf fans based their responses around the dress code of the sport and many believe that PGA Tour players should be allowed to wear shorts on competition days.

We often see our favourite players wearing shorts in their practice rounds, but it has been a common rule for many years that trousers must be worn on championship days.

"Shorts allowed on PGA Tour," one fan said.

"Wear shorts during play," another fan said.

There was certainly a variety of responses that addressed many parts of the sport. Another common idea was to alter the concept of out-of-bounds and in particular, internal out-of-bounds markers.

On some courses, you may have two holes that run parallel to each other and in between them, there may be out-of-bounds markers. This may seem a harsh boundary because if you were to hit your ball over the markers, your ball is still in the bounds of the course, but not on that hole.

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"Non-natural out of bounds.. as when an out-of-bounds is placed in between two holes," one fan said.

"Out of bounds rule," another fan commented.

We thankfully received a range of different comments and it was great to see the passion that our readers have for golf. Other significant suggestions referred to the World Handicap System, the pace of play and the size of the hole.

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