COURSES ARE GETTING WEIRD, IN A GOOD WAY
GOLF HAS LONG BEEN A GAME OF SURVIVAL and semipublic humiliation. Pulling your ball up after your eighth stroke on a par 5. Spending way too much time "on the beach" because every green is surrounded by bunkers. And the trees. All those damn trees.
But recently, golf architects have injected their links with a bit of whimsy. The Bootlegger, a new par-3 course in Michigan, has greens that funnel balls toward the hole to increase the number of hole-in-one opportunities. Washington's new par-3, QuickSands, has wild-shaped greens and a course-wide sound system that plays classic rock.
And there might not be anything wilder than PGA National Resort & Spa's new Match Course, which is designed to inspire players to keep score less and play more "match" games such as best ball, foursomes and skins. There are no tee boxes on the course; instead, the winner of each hole gets to choose where the group tees off on the next hole. Players out of the hole are expected to pick up their ball so the rounds move faster, and penalty areas are almost nonexistent.
"Sometimes golf courses start to look alike," says Jane Broderick, di-rector of golf at PGA National. "But I've never seen anything quite as unique from a design perspective. It's not your grandfather's game anymore."