In rough, golf industry tests pizza-sized holes

BULL VALLEY – Next spring, McHenry County golfers could start seeing more greens with holes larger than dinner plates as courses experiment with new ways to make the ancient game more appealing.

Boone Creek Golf Club in Bull Valley installed 15-inch golf cups – about four times the traditional width – on nine of its 27 holes in August as part of a pilot program subsidized by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf to attract younger people and make golf more fun. Boone Creek was one of more than 100 courses across the country to test out the 15-inch holes and gather feedback.

The 15-inch holes were installed on the back of the greens so they wouldn’t interfere with traditional play or offend purists, said Dave Mikolaitis, the club’s head golf professional and general manager. The initial results were positive, he said. The larger holes generated excitement, sped up the pace of play and saved players a lot of strokes.

What happens next with the huge holes remains to be seen. As TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Chief Executive Mark King has predicted, they could become a staple at events at 90 percent of golf facilities in the next five years or just another gimmick.

Regardless, public and private golf clubs throughout McHenry County already are toying with the idea of larger cups and an assortment of other ways to bring more people, especially younger ones, to area courses.

Changes to the stodgy image of golf come as the industry struggles to keep people playing. About 400,000 Americans quit playing the game last year and nearly 5 million have given up in the past 10 years, according to the National Golf Foundation. Another 20 percent of the country’s 25 million existing golfers could follow in the coming years. The biggest decline has been among players younger than 35, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

Even Bull Valley Golf Club, which has been ranked among the most difficult courses in the country, held a large cup event this year.

“It was very well received,” said Mike Picciano, the private club’s head golf professional. “The course is hard enough as it is. Different play options bring more people out to play, which is good for us.”

But the club is keen to protect its image.

“The challenge is what draws people to Bull Valley,” Picciano said.

Bull Valley Golf Club has other programs aimed at younger players, including less expensive junior executive golf memberships for those under 30.

RedTail Golf Club, an 18-hole public course owned by the village of Lakewood, hasn’t held any big cup events, but it’s “something that we’re considering,” said Chris Neuhart, the club’s general manager and golf professional. So far, most of the club’s efforts have been growing its youth programs, he said.

That also has been the focus at Crystal Lake Country Club. In recent years, the private club has expanded its junior golf programs. Three years ago, the club started the Crystal Lake Golf Academy, which opened the club to nonmembers and recruited participants from local schools. About 120 kids participated in the club’s two programs last year.

“Most of the kids hadn’t played before,” said Casey Brozek, the PGA head golf professional at Crystal Lake Country Club.

On Mondays, when the club is normally closed, music was turned up as the kids learned about safety and the fundamentals of the game. They practiced different activities to learn key skills, such as throwing a ball to learn about weight transfer, Brozek said.

In addition to introducing a new generation of golfers to the sport, Crystal Lake Country Club has ramped up offerings to its members. Recent additions include a Friday event for couples that includes nine holes followed by dinner at the club and a “Three and Wine” event for women that includes a few holes and a few glasses of wine.

“These activities are designed to be fun and social,” said Brozek, who is the immediate past president of the Illinois PGA Board of Directors. “The demographics in the country are changing. That’s part of the challenge for golf as a game. Golf needs to be attractive to all demographics; it can’t be elitist if it wants to grow.”

Jim Buenzli, owner of the Golf Academy at Terra Cotta, which has an outdoor practice area and an indoor practice facility with simulators, has his own theories about how to reverse the sport’s decline and get more young people hooked on the game.

The cost, time and difficulty of golf hold little appeal for tech-savvy millennials – a generation that grew up with video games such as “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” – and other young players, said Buenzli, who has been teaching golf for 28 years.

“Many kids would rather play on the simulator,” he said. “They really like that. The challenge for golf is to bring technology to the course. That’s what the younger generation is all about.”

He also suggested that instead of larger cups, courses should move up the tees to make it easier for beginners and young players and speed up the pace of the game.

The 15-inch holes have created a stir in the industry and generated a wide range of reactions from amateurs and professionals.

While many believe that anything that brings more people out to play is a good thing, not everyone is ready for radical changes to the traditional course or the way the game is played.

“It’s enjoyable, and it benefits amateurs – every 10-footer will go in,” said Jordan Hahn, a 17-year-old senior at Richmond-Burton High School.

But Hahn isn’t an average young player. The high school golfer helped the Rockets to their first state berth in school history, and he finished third individually at the Class 2A state golf meet earlier this month (he also finished third in 2013). He’ll be playing golf next year at the University of Wisconsin. Hahn started playing golf as child with his father, Ron, and he hopes to continue playing through college and long after.

“I prefer the challenge of the smaller cups,” he said. “Putting is one of the hardest parts of golf, but it’s also part of the fun.”