Yankee Run bets bigger is better for golf

When we look back at what our lives were like 10 years ago, we see a lot of changes.

With the golf industry, it sees mostly losses.

After an explosion of golf in the 1990s — the Tiger Woods surge — golf has been nose-diving since 2002.

Blame 9/11, blame the 2008 recession, blame a lost middle class, blame prissiness, blame time, blame ...

The press has been on in 2014 to fix, not blame.

One cool website that is fun to read is hackgolf.org — a website dedicated to public sharing of ideas to fix the game.

This week, Yankee Run Golf Course in Brookfield introduced an idea that has been promoted by HackGolf — larger golf holes.

Yankee’s back nine holes now have the traditional 4.25-inch-wide hole sharing space on the green with a larger 8-inch hole. At twice the size of the traditional hole, it appears enormous.

The course will add them to the front nine holes this week.

(SEE VIDEO ON GREATEST GOLFER FACEBOOK PAGE)

Yankee’s plan — this is its new course set-up. It is not just a trial. Two holes will be on every green — a traditional hole for the hardcore player, and a larger hole for the casual player.

Bob Collins, Yankee’s PGA Golf professional, said when their mass email went out Thursday announcing what they call “Big Cup” golf, phone calls and players were instant.

He laughs about one of the first players Thursday who was joyful about a 30-foot putt he made that he might not have with the small hole.

It’s that reaction that he seizes on. He’s been in the golf business for decades at a handful of regional courses.

“I have never heard a player say, ‘Hey, I just played one of my better rounds here; I’m not coming back because it’s too easy,’” he said.

“What I have heard is: ‘Your course is too much golf for us.’ And they’re gone.”

Big Cup, he thinks, is a way to switch the trend.

Gary McMullin runs Yankee with his cousin, Paul.

The McMullins are three generations deep into the course their family opened in 1931. Their homes are sprinkled around the course. A sister was knee-deep in a flower bed Friday; another cousin works the register. A fourth McMullin generation was on a lawn mower maintaining the fairways just as the previous three generations have done.

Yankee Run is the family’s life. Gary is unabashed about two things:

It’s great working with a lot of family in a place that means so much to them.

And business is tougher than ever given the current golfing trend.

He placed the order for the big cups after Paul came in with a video to show the group.

Legacy and tradition are enormous in a sport that goes back centuries, and also at a course that is four generations old. In short: Things don’t change quickly.

But adding larger holes was an instant decision for them. They decided that day, and two weeks later, players were playing Big Cup golf Thursday.

I played the back nine Friday morning.

I liked it, and I get it.

It was a different game standing over a 20-foot putt or a 20-yard chip. Normal thinking is “alright — get this shot to a foot or two for simple par putt.”

With the big cup, you absolutely think “I can make this.”

Sure, golf has varying tee-box lengths to equalize player disparity, and there is a handicap shots system to further equalize players.

But the green is a heartbreaker in golf. A player can spend three shots to move two football fields in length, then spend another three shots to finish just the final 20 feet.

The most fun result Friday:

Other players were there, and when I bumped into them in the parking lot after, they boasted about their identical scores of 44. One player scored it on the normal holes. When I talked to her at the start of her round, she gruffly dismissed the idea of a larger cup.

The other lady scored 44 — on the big holes. And they both had great smiles leaving the course.

Collins said that’s what he expects to happen: Hardcore golfers will prefer the normal holes. But casual golfers will opt for Big Cup. He sees it as easier for hardcore players to share a round with spouses and children.

Two holes sharing the green has been a simple adjustment. To distinguish the Big Cup hole, it will have a checkered flag and be on a shorter pole. The standard hole will get moved almost daily, per normal. But the Big Cup will get moved once every week or so. They are employing standard rules of ball replacement when either cup gets in the way of the intended cup, or if a player inadvertently lands in the wrong cup.

The Big Cup system also comes with tin covers that can cap the hole and sit flush with the green for events where they want Big Cup out of play.

Collins said the 8-inch-wide Big Cup is the new normal at Yankee.

What they will wait on: a 15-inch hole.

The HackGolf people are using that, too, and had a special event this year with several PGA Tour pros playing the holes. A course in California installed the 15-inch holes. In the first two weeks of play, the average time to play golf dropped by 45 minutes to 3 hours and 45 minutes. The average score dropped by 10 shots.

On 15-inch holes, Collins said with a laugh: “One step at a time.”

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.