Golf Magazine: Golf Is Awesome so stop trying to hack it and instead embrace what makes the game so damn great!

Written By: Tony Covey

The Monday after The Masters TaylorMade Golf hosted a HackGolf event at Reynolds Plantation where PGA Tour Professionals Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose wore shorts, and, playing alongside media members more important (or more likely to say nice things about HackGolf) than myself, hit golf balls into 15” cups.

…and golf was saved.

If only it was that simple.

The experiment will be repeated at courses all over the country (sans the PGA Tour guys and the media), and if everything goes well, courses will be given the option to purchase the 15” kits.

Here’s a quick tip…if you want to give the appearance that Hacking Golf is all about growing the game, and not simply growing a revenue stream, maybe don’t try and cash in on the Hack hole kits. In fairness, TaylorMade is footing the bill for the first 100 kits, and anybody else who wants them needs to pay Par Aide, so it’s not like TaylorMade is cashing in on this first attempt at hacking the golf.

Tell us why you love golf and you’ll be automatically entered to win a special MyGolfSpy Prize Package.

Since the Hack Golf initiative launched a steady stream of mostly predictable ideas (some more absurd than others) have rolled in.

:: We need bigger cups (apparently 15” is the right number)

:: Courses should open up for Foot Golf (15” cups might work there too)

:: The golf balls should be bigger

:: Courses should replace their golf carts with Segways

:: EVERYONE should play faster

I’ll give the Segway idea points for ingenuity…and fun.

The problem with HackGolf is that to date it’s a community of mostly avid golfers complaining about everything that’s wrong with golf. The new blood (guys who don’t play golf at all – and can provide a reasoned explanation for what that is) is largely absent. The guys talking about what’s wrong with golf, are the ones playing most of the golf.

Here’s everything I hate, but I play anyway…but YOU still need to fix it.

Could you imagine if golf companies sold equipment this way? Don’t buy our driver because…well…here’s all the stuff that’s wrong with it. Buy hey, bear with us, we’ll brainstorm the problem, and get back to you later.

To grow golf you have to sell what’s great about golf, not reinvent the whole damn game.

The HackGolf approach is all wrong. To grow golf we don’t need to tear it down. It doesn’t need to be hacked. We need to tap in to why it is that we play this amazing game despite the hundreds of things that are apparently terribly wrong with it.

Each and every one of us loves golf. Reasons may be singular or many, but WE LOVE GOLF.

Share the love, grow the game. That’s what I believe.

So right now, today, right here, let’s have a discussion. I don’t want to hear about slow play, or how expensive golf is. I’m not interested in complaints about equipment release cycles, or the lack of Segways on the golf course.

I want you to tell me this and only this: