Is Hack Golf really the answer to grow golf?

WHEN Golfmagic attended the 2014 PGA Show in Orlando earlier this year, TaylorMade-adidas Golf CEO Mark King revealed to the world of golf a new initiative between the PGA of America and TaylorMade called Hack Golf.

The idea behind Hack Golf is to make this finicky game a little more fun as the sport evolves in the 21st century, no matter whether you're a golfer or not. In short, it's about core golfers keeping an open mind.

So up steps the first concept. 15-inch cup tournaments. No, not 15-inch cups presented to victorious golfers for winning tournaments but 15-inch cups out on the greens... cups that are 3.52941176 times larger than standard.

Now Hack Golf, and this new 15-inch idea, is clearly going to divide opinion, particularly among golf traditionalists out there. At a young age, golfers are taught to play 18 holes, learn the rules - or to the best ability - and count every stroke until the ball reaches the bottom of that 4.25-inch cup.

Yet King's philosophy isn't about changing the game, far from it. He just wants to find an easier, faster, more alternative and more attractive solution to drive new players into our sport. I'm all for that.

King isn't trying to twist the arm of Tim Finchem and bring 15-inch cup tournaments into the FedEx Cup, he simply wants core golfers to keep an open mind on how best we bring the next stars of tomorrow into the sport. If truth be told, I think it's great to see someone finally doing something about it.

While this 15-inch idea hasn't yet taken off this side of the pond, I saw something similar down Hoebridge Golf Centre at the weekend when out playing the par-3 course with a mate of mine. There were two pins on each green. One was the standard cup, which I was playing for, and the other, a 15-inch cup for a junior event going on.

For the avid golfer, a lot of these initiatives are shocking. Golfers are taught at a young age to play 18 holes, know the rules - or as many as they can - and count every stroke until the ball reaches a bottom of a 4.25-inch cup.

Truthfully, that’s not necessarily how the game is typically played. Out of bounds balls are not properly re-teed. Clubs are grounded in hazards. Mulligans, breakfast balls and gimmes are more the norm than not.

These “rules” are not written, but are accepted. Hack Golf is counting on core golfers keeping an open mind.

Hack Golf’s first concept is the introduction of a 15-inch cup tournament. Held for the first time at Pauma Valley Country Club in Southern California, typical golf rules still prevailed with the exception that the cup was 3.5 times its normal size. The tournament was a huge success according to King.

Rounds took 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete on average and some golfers showed a 10-stroke improvement with plenty of “hero” shots: One woman chipped in seven times, another man shot a gross 58.

To introduce the big cup concept to the media, Hack Golf hosted its own 9-hole, 15-inch cup event at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., with TaylorMade staff players Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia the day after the conclusion of the Masters. You may think anything from 50 yards and in would be jarred by Garcia, who has 24 worldwide professional wins and by Rose, the reigning U.S. Open champ. Results, however, were a little surprising. Rose shot 3-under, while Garcia bested him by posting 6-under. There were plenty of chip-ins and long putts made, but no hole-in-one or slam dunk from the fairway. The takeaway? With a big cup, golf is more fun but it is still hard.

Over the next few weeks, 20 more courses will join in on the 15-inch cup concept, with another 80 are expected to receive the custom 15-inch cup kit from PAR AIDE by the end of May. Format participation will include weekend tournaments and fundraisers, but some courses will have both a regulation hole and 15-inch hole on each green at all times as long as green square footage will allow. In the next month, the Hack Golf campaign plans to announce one or two more experiments to execute in the future.

Only time will tell what, if any, of these experiments will work, but King and Hack Golf have dedicated five years to funding this concept, so no doubt there are more developments to come.

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WHEN Golfmagic attended the 2014 PGA Show in Orlando earlier this year, TaylorMade-adidas Golf CEO Mark King revealed to the world of golf a new initiative between the PGA of America and TaylorMade called Hack Golf.

Uh? I thought, listening patiently in the room as to why Mr King wanted Golfmagic to understand why he was so hacked off about the sport he loves. Oh right gotcha, I replied to myself when he uttered his next sentence.

Clearly a play on words, Hack Golf bills itself as an open-innovation initiative aimed at crowdsourcing the future of the game, and that's whether you're an experienced golfer or not.

Several months down the line from the PGA Show and King has flagged up his first concept in the United States with 15-inch cup tournaments.

No, not 15-inch cups presented to victorious golfers for winning tournaments but 15-inch cups on the greens. For the mathematicians amongst you, these are cups that are indeed 3.52941176 times larger than standard.

Now Hack Golf, and this new 15-inch cup idea, is clearly going to divide opinion, particularly among the golf traditionalists out there. At a young age, golfers are taught to play 18 holes, learn the rules - or to the best ability - and count every stroke until the ball reaches the bottom of that 4.25-inch cup.

Yet King's philosophy isn't about changing the game, far from it. He just wants to find an easier, faster, more alternative and more attractive solution to drive new players into our sport. And I'm all for that.

King isn't trying to twist the arm of Tim Finchem and bring 15-inch cup tournaments into the FedEx Cup, he simply wants core golfers to keep an open mind on how best we build involvement and get people talking about our sport on a more frequent basis. If truth be told, I think it's great to see someone finally doing something about it.

According to King, Hack Golf's first 15-inch cup event took place at Pauma Valley CC in California recently and it proved a big success. Typical golf rules still prevailed, only the cup was three and half times larger than normal size, and thankfully rounds took under three hours and 45 minutes to complete on average.

While this 15-inch idea hasn't yet fully taken off this side of the pond, it did at Hoebridge Golf Centre when I was out on its Maybury par-3 course at the weekend. There were two pins on each green. One was the standard cup, which I was playing to, and the other, a 15-inch cup for the junior event that was going on for the groups behind me.

Now I tell you what, you might think it's easy to drain a putt from around 10-feet with a cup nearly the size of a football, but it's not. Making sure there were no groups behind me, I dropped ten balls down on one hole, holed five and three-jabbed one. I did however hole four chip shots out of ten from from just off the green. Make of that what you will. Poor putter, classy chipper

While I was out on the course, I thought I'd take a look around and see how some of these juniors were getting on. Most of them, no more than eight years old, may have been seen hacking the ball up the fairway in order to actually get to the 15-inch cup, but putting wasn't quite so much of an issue as it usually is. Once on the green, they took little time to get off the hole. There's nothing worse than watching an inexperienced golfer take five-jabs to get the ball home, scuffing up the greens and leaving spike marks around the hole.

Anything that speeds up the pace of play, I'm all for.

Yet the most important thing for me was these juniors were out on a golf course bright and early on a Saturday morning with smiles on their faces. They even had their mums and dads out there supporting them and lugging their bags. It was great to see. Some of them were even given it the ol' Marcel Siem fist pump. I even saw one lad walk one in with a Tiger finger point.

My one criticism would be that this isn't how golf is played, so when they do eventually get in to the sport properly, they're going to wonder why putting towards a standard golf hole suddenly feels like putting towards a polo mint. But hey ho, as I mentioned earlier, it's a fun, new concept that still allows players to tee up and isn't aiming to change the way the sport is played.

The rest of the UK might not quite have adapted to King's philosophy but his nation very much has. To introduce the big cup concept to the US media, Hack Golf hosted its own 9-hole, 15-inch cup event at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro with TaylorMade staff players Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia the day after the conclusion of The Masters.

Now you might think anything from 50 yards and in would be jarred by Garcia, who has 24 worldwide professional wins and by Rose, the reigning US Open champ, but a bit like me, results were a little surprising. Rose only shot 3-under, while Garcia bested him by posting 6-under.

There were plenty of chip-ins and long putts made, but no hole-in-one or slam dunk from the fairway. The takeaway? With a big cup, golf is more fun but still tricky.

Over the next few weeks in America, 20 more courses are expected to join in on the 15-inch cup concept, with another 80 to receive the custom 15-inch cup kit from PAR AIDE by the end of May.

Five years from now, King believes 90% of courses in the States will take up the 15-inch cup idea. That seems a little steep, but in a day an age that now sees golf hovercrafts, golf skateboards and electric golf trolleys that follow you out on the course, maybe he's right?

Format participation will include weekend tournaments and fundraisers, but some courses will have both a regulation hole and 15-inch hole on each green at all times as long as green square footage will allow. In the next month, the Hack Golf campaign plans to announce one or two more experiments to execute in the future.

It was great to see Hoebridge Golf Club doing something similar over here at the weekend, it would just be nice to see more clubs following suit.

The great Bobby Jones once said the most important distance in this bedeviling game is the space between the ears. Perhaps the only measurement that really matters in 2014 and beyond is the diameter of that hole?

What are your thoughts about Hack Golf? Will it take off? Share your thoughts in the forum or you can tweet us @Golfmagic

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