Tuesday, October 27, 2020

I find out Clock Golf is a thing

 I just discovered that there is a thing called Clock Golf. It was a 19th century lawn game. I found out it existed because George MacDonald Fraser mentioned it in passing but apparently Agatha Christie and Wodehouse mention it as well, if Wikipedia is to be believed.


The basic idea is setting twelve metal numbers in a circle ten to thirty feet in diameter and taking turns putting a golf ball into a hole somewhere in the circle from each of the numbers. The hole doesn’t have to be in middle so there can be some variety. Some rules say it’s okay to have shrubs and other obstacles to make things interesting.

My first thought on finding out that Clock Golf is a thing was that it was like a precursor to miniature golf.  My second thought was that it was kind of the opposite of miniature golf since everything happens in one tiny space. 

I guess if you love golf enough that you still want to play it when you only have ten feet to work with, this is what you come up with. On the other hand, I kind of thought space was kind of the idea when you play golf, even miniature golf.

I can see how Clock Golf is a clever idea and I can also see why I never heard of it.



No comments:

Post a Comment