Readers Respond to the Wild Ideas of SI Golf's Bad Takes Week
Our first Bad Takes Week at SI Golf proved to be a hit with readers, who wrote to us by the hundreds to agree or disagree with our out-of-the box ideas for improving golf.
Here's some of the feedback, thanks to everyone for reading and taking the time to write—and we promise to fire up another Bad Takes Week in 2024.
Stephen Skalocky/Sports Illustrated
Wild Changes at Augusta National
Jeff Ritter's idea to swap the 9th and 18th holes for the Masters and transport players by gondolas due to the resulting change in routing certainly got attention.
This "Bad Take" isn't just bad, it is ridiculously horrible! Both logistically, and historically. Leave Augusta National alone, it doesn't need changes.
Don R. Sargent
College Grove, Tenn.
Save the gondola for ski weekends!
Russ Sheldon
Pittsburgh, Pa.
I'm agnostic about changing the golfers' final hole, but the gondolas!
Listen, here's what they should do: Level some of the surrounding forest. Create a big manicured field. Build gondola stanchions and cables around the new field. Presto! Gondola polo! The tournament could invite only the best polo players in the world, but it should also invite qualified royal players at least for the first few years to draw attention. Maybe an NCAA-style tournament, with seedings and regions. Think of the prestige that would accrue to Augusta!
Steve Timberlake
Pearl City, Hawaii
A Solution for the Fall
Bob Harig proposed that PGA Tour fall events be contested over 54 hole and end on Fridays, allowing everyone to watch weekend football.
Keep that idea alive, but play 36 on Friday. The Tour remains stalwart in playing 72-hole events, and the rest of Bob’s benefits take hold. Voila.
Todd Singleton
Kiawah Island, S.C.
The Clock Game
The words "slow play" always get readers' attention and John Hawkins's proposal to finally get serious about timing shots and issuing penalties was almost universally loved.
Speeding up PGA Tour play is badly needed.
If four amateurs shooting 90 to 100 can play 18 holes in 4/4:15 depending on the course layout with a stop at the turn, pros can certainly play faster.
However I would hate to be the non-paid, non-trained volunteer who sends in a time that costs some slow player(s) tens of thousands of dollars and Fed Ex points. The volunteer pool will slowly diminish.
The ShotLink idea, or similar, has some real possibilities.
Charlie Henstock
Rochester Hills, Mich.
In addition to penalizing slow play, reward fast play. Any player who has no bad times gets a stroke removed from his score. Beat all times by 30 seconds or more, a 70 becomes a 68.
Stephen Williams
Reidsville, N.C.
There are extenuating circumstances where it takes longer to make a certain shot—awkward stances, wild weather, etc.—so why not try a cumulative shot clock? One minute per shot, so an average of 72 minutes per round. Hurry up a bit on the front nine and have some time in your pocket for later. Maybe grant two timeouts per round for those really weird situations. One sport that does this is the not-so-frequently watched sport of curling, if you want to look it up.
Mike Marshall
Nanoose Bay, British Columbia
Hitting the 'Off' Button on Music
Of our all Bad Takes, Gabby Herzig's one about outlawing music on the golf course drew the biggest response.
I agree. Nor should a speaker blare music from a backpack on a mountain peak. Heard it. Felt it. I want my feelings affected by all that's naturally presenting itself in this hike or round. Music expresses packaged feelings my mind cannot ignore.
Frank Pastizzo
Elizabethtown, N.Y.
I think for some younger people it may actually be a draw to the game. They may have an idea of golf as being too serious, too stuffy and not fun. Top Golf has helped bring many to the game with the fun and relaxed atmosphere with music playing, but they may be nervous to go to a real course. But if they get there and someone is playing music in the group it may relax them and think it's a fun game to play and get them more comfortable.
Like everything, some people will take it to the extreme blasting it and bother those that don't want music played on the course. But, if done in moderation, I think there is a time and place for music while playing golf. To me, it's not an all or nothing thing.
James Fields
Flower Mound, Texas
Every one of your points is solid. I thought my aversion to this new phenomenon was a response to the unwaveringly terrible taste in music of those with tee times around mine. Then I played a round with a nice gentleman whose playlist favored Willie Nelson and other mellow musicians—and it still didn’t belong. It was as distracting as listening to two different songs at the same time.
I would like to add skiing to the list of sports in which Bluetooth speakers have somehow triumphed over headphones. Now I’ve got to listen to Obnoxious Ollie’s Pathetic Playlist while waiting on the lift line. And this is after helmet manufactures thoughtfully engineered headphones into their ear flaps. What can we do? Let’s hope that personal subwoofers don’t start triggering avalanches.
Matt Zavod
Davis, Calif.
Playing music with a speaker in your golf cart is refreshing, as long as the music is reasonable with both sound and content. I disagree about not hearing the sounds of nature or the purity of a golf shot off your 7-iron. As long as the rest of your group doesn’t mind I see no problem with listening to some tunes while playing and enjoying a round of golf.
Gary Perna
St. Augustine, Fla.
Completely agree with Gabrielle! And I am an aging baby boomer that still attends rock concerts and has several albums and playlists that define and currently accompany my life, except on the golf course.
Mary O'Toole
Inverness, Ill.
The reason music is a thing on the course is because the rounds have become an all-day event. Its called slow play and most courses do nothing about it. So when you have to wait on every shot because some 25 handicap thinks they are playing the U.S. open, it's time to bring on the tunes.
Don Albert
Ocala, Fla.
Removing the Rakes
John Schwarb's idea of barring rakes from the PGA Tour was another hotly debated Bad Take.
A fair comparison of talent requires that all competitors face the same obstacles to success. A deep footprint in a bunker presents a very different challenge from a flat lie. If you fly a ball into the sand and end up with a fried egg lie, that is a problem of your own creation not one left behind by someone playing ahead of you.
The game has been played for many years under essentially the same set of rules and I don’t believe that making the game harder for those who have worked to hone their talent would make it any better for the rest of us. Leave the raking rule alone!
Norm Viger
Plymouth, Maine
If you have to hit out of a fairway divot when you've hit a good shot, then it's a no-brainer you should have to hit out of a footprint when you've hit a bad shot.
James Stiles
Lexington, N.C.
We can keep the rakes in bunkers but let's go back to heavier sand and 3-inch tines on the rakes with raking perpendicular to the line of play.
Skip Steffey
Joliet, Ill.