Urban-golf: Play a cool new game
If you think your neighbourhood golf club is insufferably stuffy,
joyless, and over-frequented by pretentious knowit-alls, make your own
'space' and try urban golf.
Urban golf is all about minimum rules and maximum challenges.
Hang on a second… What about the mayhem this will likely cause? Smashed office windows, pedestrians ducking for cover, drivers provoked to road rage as off-centre strikes bounce off bonnets-isn't urban golf, er, a menace to public order?
Well, no, actually. It's perfect for the public. This is golf for the folks, a bracing antidote to the code-heavy traditional game. The irreverent website, urbangolf.org, describes this cool version of the Scottish creation thus: "A game played on a large outdoor course located in a non-residential section of a city, with a series of targets spaced far apart, the object being to propel a ball with the use of various clubs toward each target (in) as few strokes as possible." Basically, it's golf in a city environment.
If folklore is to be trusted, urban golf goes back to the 1740s, when an adventurous fellow named Duncan Thomas 'coursemanaged' his imaginary way-to the bemused looks of passersby-outside White Hart Inn (was it the ale?), in Edinburgh's Grassmarket area. So it's entirely possible that the Scots first played city golf before making for the littoral.
Urban golf may not have grown out of the need to democratise the game and take it away from its hidebound country-club setting-but that's how it seems to have shaped up. The late Jeremy 'Jez' Feakes is considered the pioneer of urban golf. Fed up of the snootiness of the members at his London local, Feakes, an architect and designer, took the game to the streets and founded the Shoreditch Golf Club. This GC was the venue for the first known urban golf event-18 holes, par 72- which has been running every year since 2004.
Truly, Feakes was a man of the people. He fiddled with the Rules, oftentimes perceived as too complicated, and too 'many', and designed a soft leather ball stuffed with goose feathers that could fly (though not as far as the dimpled sphere) and roll. And the golf course? The back lanes of Shoreditch with their graffiti-lined walls. Circular 'carpets' made do as greens, while open mains' valves with flagpoles stuck in and cobbled streets doubled up -respectively- as holes and fairways. Thus was urban golf established as a competition-worthy sport. The inaugural Shoreditch Urban Open saw guys like Tiger Would, Puff Caddy and DJ Swing tee it up!
A little over a decade before Feakes was so inspired, Torsten Schilling, a golf novice from Germany, began practicing near office blocks. Schilling would go on to form a group called Natural Born Golfers, which led to 'cross golf', an offshoot of the urban variety; NBG today has players in the USA, Europe and Asia. Through its use of urban spaces that are either abandoned, disused or underutilised, cross golf (also practiced by Urban Golf Unit of the Netherlands) can help regenerate cities---cricket has given deprived street children a second chance in Los Angeles, so golf's power to do good should not be underestimated.
For a game on the go, cross golf also employs building sites, canals, hotel lobbies, industrial zones, rooftops and school campus sites ('campus golf' is played on college campuses in the US, and helps promote the game among students).
Empty and thinly inhabited spaces are not too difficult to find: car parks are ideal for an impromptu session with the irons, and so are building sites and wide thoroughfares. A tip- to dodge the wrath of city dwellers, avoid housing blocks! Any old street would do as a fairway, while water hydrant holes would be perfect 'cups', replicating the feeling of sinking a putt. And if you want to simulate conditions to the 'tee', lampposts can become trees, buildings clumps of trees, and drains bunkers. And traffic?
Well, let's not even go there… But urban golf has additional and unique challenges. Stray dogs and cats can run off with your ball, or gutters might gobble it up. Carry spares.
There's no need to lug around a full set. You're best advised to carry short to middle irons (5, 6 or 7); the 'lower' the club, the less chance the ball has of gaining altitude. Do, however, keep a short iron or two handy if you intend to clear buildings! And if stuffed leather balls aren't at hand, tennis or squash balls are good substitutes.
But Feakes' goose-feathered orbs are good at negating hooks and slices which is good news for novices. So how do you play urban golf? Well, firstly, you need a mat off which to hit your ball --a portable piece of Astroturf is ideal. Choose a target and hit your ball towards it, as you would toward any hole on a regular golf course. Par for the hole would depend on the distance between tee-box and target. When you've struck the target, you've 'holed' the ball. Some suggestions from urbangolf.org: Large targets/holes must be hit by the ball, or the ball must pass 'under' it; with small or skinny targets, the ball must pass within a radius of three feet, or one club length, of the target- and it's the other players who decide whether the shot is within three feet!
Stationary trucks, bins, store sheds, bridges, mail or telephone boxes (if those things are still around), even pubs-all these are entirely acceptable targets. Should it ever come into play as a 'target', the pub would be the perfect 18th (or ninth) hole; one can, upon completing a round, quaff contentedly on a cool beer and mull over the day's golf away from the forced conviviality of the clubhouse.
Urban golf can get wacky-when it moves from street level to the rooftops. It's even more hairy with double the thrills when played at night. If you're so inclined, or a little daft, do carry a powerful torch. City golf has caught the fancy of many a bored and distinctly un-elitist golfing urbanite-Argentina, New Zealand and Russia are among the countries that have set up urban golf associations. NW Urban Sports, of Portland, Oregon (US), teed off a 'World Urban Golf Day' in 2007, while the Urban Golf Association runs the biennial Charles Bukowski North Beach Invitational in San Francisco.
You see, hipsters dig it too. You can find your own time, and your own area, for urban golf-no need to book a tee time and best of all, you can stay well clear of cranky and capricious club members. There's no clubhouse dress code or club tournament committees, you don't have to shell out green fees, and the only 'rule' that matters is the 'safety first' rule. Remember, this game is all about "having fun, not winning" (urbangolf.org). So leave the gravitas behind and enjoy your round.
Well, no, actually. It's perfect for the public. This is golf for the folks, a bracing antidote to the code-heavy traditional game. The irreverent website, urbangolf.org, describes this cool version of the Scottish creation thus: "A game played on a large outdoor course located in a non-residential section of a city, with a series of targets spaced far apart, the object being to propel a ball with the use of various clubs toward each target (in) as few strokes as possible." Basically, it's golf in a city environment.
Urban golf is fast catching up as a relaxed way to enjoy the sport
Urban golf may not have grown out of the need to democratise the game and take it away from its hidebound country-club setting-but that's how it seems to have shaped up. The late Jeremy 'Jez' Feakes is considered the pioneer of urban golf. Fed up of the snootiness of the members at his London local, Feakes, an architect and designer, took the game to the streets and founded the Shoreditch Golf Club. This GC was the venue for the first known urban golf event-18 holes, par 72- which has been running every year since 2004.
Truly, Feakes was a man of the people. He fiddled with the Rules, oftentimes perceived as too complicated, and too 'many', and designed a soft leather ball stuffed with goose feathers that could fly (though not as far as the dimpled sphere) and roll. And the golf course? The back lanes of Shoreditch with their graffiti-lined walls. Circular 'carpets' made do as greens, while open mains' valves with flagpoles stuck in and cobbled streets doubled up -respectively- as holes and fairways. Thus was urban golf established as a competition-worthy sport. The inaugural Shoreditch Urban Open saw guys like Tiger Would, Puff Caddy and DJ Swing tee it up!
A little over a decade before Feakes was so inspired, Torsten Schilling, a golf novice from Germany, began practicing near office blocks. Schilling would go on to form a group called Natural Born Golfers, which led to 'cross golf', an offshoot of the urban variety; NBG today has players in the USA, Europe and Asia. Through its use of urban spaces that are either abandoned, disused or underutilised, cross golf (also practiced by Urban Golf Unit of the Netherlands) can help regenerate cities---cricket has given deprived street children a second chance in Los Angeles, so golf's power to do good should not be underestimated.
For a game on the go, cross golf also employs building sites, canals, hotel lobbies, industrial zones, rooftops and school campus sites ('campus golf' is played on college campuses in the US, and helps promote the game among students).
Empty and thinly inhabited spaces are not too difficult to find: car parks are ideal for an impromptu session with the irons, and so are building sites and wide thoroughfares. A tip- to dodge the wrath of city dwellers, avoid housing blocks! Any old street would do as a fairway, while water hydrant holes would be perfect 'cups', replicating the feeling of sinking a putt. And if you want to simulate conditions to the 'tee', lampposts can become trees, buildings clumps of trees, and drains bunkers. And traffic?
Well, let's not even go there… But urban golf has additional and unique challenges. Stray dogs and cats can run off with your ball, or gutters might gobble it up. Carry spares.
Urban golf can get wacky-when it moves from street level to the rooftops.
But Feakes' goose-feathered orbs are good at negating hooks and slices which is good news for novices. So how do you play urban golf? Well, firstly, you need a mat off which to hit your ball --a portable piece of Astroturf is ideal. Choose a target and hit your ball towards it, as you would toward any hole on a regular golf course. Par for the hole would depend on the distance between tee-box and target. When you've struck the target, you've 'holed' the ball. Some suggestions from urbangolf.org: Large targets/holes must be hit by the ball, or the ball must pass 'under' it; with small or skinny targets, the ball must pass within a radius of three feet, or one club length, of the target- and it's the other players who decide whether the shot is within three feet!
Stationary trucks, bins, store sheds, bridges, mail or telephone boxes (if those things are still around), even pubs-all these are entirely acceptable targets. Should it ever come into play as a 'target', the pub would be the perfect 18th (or ninth) hole; one can, upon completing a round, quaff contentedly on a cool beer and mull over the day's golf away from the forced conviviality of the clubhouse.
Urban golf can get wacky-when it moves from street level to the rooftops. It's even more hairy with double the thrills when played at night. If you're so inclined, or a little daft, do carry a powerful torch. City golf has caught the fancy of many a bored and distinctly un-elitist golfing urbanite-Argentina, New Zealand and Russia are among the countries that have set up urban golf associations. NW Urban Sports, of Portland, Oregon (US), teed off a 'World Urban Golf Day' in 2007, while the Urban Golf Association runs the biennial Charles Bukowski North Beach Invitational in San Francisco.
You see, hipsters dig it too. You can find your own time, and your own area, for urban golf-no need to book a tee time and best of all, you can stay well clear of cranky and capricious club members. There's no clubhouse dress code or club tournament committees, you don't have to shell out green fees, and the only 'rule' that matters is the 'safety first' rule. Remember, this game is all about "having fun, not winning" (urbangolf.org). So leave the gravitas behind and enjoy your round.
