While some envisioned the 15-inch golf holes as a way to make the game easier and increase pace of play, golf courses like Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in Galena, Ill., and Pauma Valley (Calif.) Country Club have opted to remove the underused holes, noting that they are hard on greens.
Enlarged golf holes, measuring as wide as 15 inches across, haven’t caught on as well as some have hoped, according to a column in the Chicago Tribune.
The big holes are an element of Hack Golf, an initiative of TaylorMade-adidas Golf to experiment with the sport in ways that encourage new participants. Hack Golf rolled out in 2014 with the idea that it would make golf not only easier to play but faster, and that once comfortable with the big holes, duffers would move along to play the regulation holes, the Tribune reported.
The nine-hole East Course at Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in Galena, Ill., recently removed its expanded holes, the Tribune reported.
“People just weren’t using them,” said Reagan Davis, the head pro at Eagle Ridge. “Not even kids were using them. And we found it was really hard on our greens, pulling up and putting down circles of turf that big.”
Davis said with all the flags—for footgolf, Hack Golf and plain old golf—”it was starting to look like the Indy 500 out there.”
“We’re staying away from using them,” said Jerry Hixon, the pro at Pauma Valley (Calif.) Country Club, where the company first installed the 15-inch holes. “We’ll put them in for special events once in a while, but they’re awfully hard on our greens.”
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