Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald test out 15-inch golf holes

Could bigger, 15-inch golf holes attract more people to the game of golf?

Many golf clubs are struggling to make ends meet with golfers leaving the game in droves because of the huge time investment it takes to play the game. In order to arrest the flow, there is lots of chatter among the golf community, golf brands and even by the game’s governing bodies that has led to some interesting ideas on ways to make the game more interesting, more fun and ultimately, much quicker.

Sergio Garcia plays in TaylorMade’s 15-inch hole event. Photo: Paul Abell/AP Images for Hack Golf

Hack Golf was developed by TaylorMade/Adidas and the PGA of America as an open platform to come up with different ways to grow the game, including changing the rules, the style of play – or in this case the size of the golf holes.

We’ve mentioned the bigger golf hole idea here before at Aussie Golfer and its been trialled most recently in Canberra, but TaylorMade and Adidas recently ran a few official 15-inch golf hole tournaments that included Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald testing out the concept in a round just after last week’s Masters Tournament.

According to the report on the event at HackGolf.org, players are not surprisingly getting around the golf course much quicker with lower scores:

At Monday’s event, Garcia recorded a score of 30 playing nine holes with 15-inch cups installed in the greens, while Rose shot a 33.

Previous experiments with the 15-inch cup, including from its maiden voyage two weeks ago at Pauma Valley Country Club in Southern California, have produced faster rounds, lower scores and more fun. A typical 4:30 round is 3:45, and many golfers are seeing a 10-stroke improvement in scores that typically include long putts and chip-ins from off the green.

The idea behind this (and Hack Golf) is to just try some of the more practical ideas that come across the table and see if this may be a way forward to bring people to the game. You can join up to HackGolf and suggest some ideas of your own.

I don’t think anyone expects this 15-inch game will replace the game as we know it, but it does look like a load of fun. Holing shots from off the greens suddenly becomes a real proposition and who wouldn’t want to play a shorter round of golf?

Your thoughts and comments on this one?