Growing the Game with GGR

Smyrna Golf Course Offers New Wrinkle

by Adam Carrington, The Marietta Daily Journal

SMYRNA — Bicycles have training wheels. Bowling alleys have gutter guards. Ski resorts have bunny slopes.

Even a few tennis clubs have miniature courts to get aspiring players started.

Aside from par-3 courses, golf has never seemed to offer much in terms of giving upstarts a more enjoyable experience.

Legacy Golf Links, an executive course, worked outside the box to come up with a solution.

The club added a second hole on every green that’s the size of a salad bowl — approximately 8 inches wide — and marked by a yellow checkered flag. The larger holes sit roughly 20 feet away from where the standard 4¼-inch-wide cup is laid.

Other course adjustments include two tee boxes at each hole, as opposed to three.

“There’s no doubt the statistics show — and this is gathered by the PGA of America — in the last number of years, there are more people exiting the game of golf,” said Al Morrison, the general manager at Legacy. “We want to do our little part to reverse that, and doing something a little different like this will allow people to come and enjoy the game without having the pressure of seeing the success on a more difficult field.”