Project Flogton

“Flogton” is a dumbed-down perversion of the game of golf. Learn the game correctly, play the game correctly. Still learning, or just plain not very good at the game? Play easier courses, play nine holes. Slicing or hooking the ball? Use low spin balls like the DT SoLo, take a lesson, improve your skills - work at the game. There is a word for tricking out your clubs with plastic faces or Vaseline to reduce spin from mis-hits – cheating. Remember the Kenny Mayne commercial for the Top-Fite Gamer golf ball? The one where he is asking this guy questions out on the course to see if he was a “gamer”?

Kenny: “Winter rules?”
Golfer: “Cheating.”
Kenny: “Gimmes?”
Golfer: “Make the putt!”
Kenny starts to hand the guy a Gamer, then hesistates and asks one last question:
Kenny: “Mulligans?”
Golfer: [Gives Kenny a dirty look]
Kenny hands the Golfer a Gamer, then turns to look off-camera and says, “We’ve got our guy!”

The satisfaction comes from improving your skills and lowering your score – not from lowering the standards of the game. Still can’t hack it? Take up tennis.

Spoken like a jaded traditionalist! With the standard slow, difficult & expensive golf game fast losing appeal and golfers, something has to be done to attract more to the game. Conceived in an era of excess, old style golf methods don't work in the new cultural era of quick, affordable and less frustrating.
Pull your head out of the sand trap and look around at all the big courses now struggling to stay alive, because of the lack of golfers....and likely, with an attitude like yours, to get worse.

Heard this discussed on "Hooked on Golf" this morning and I am incredibly disappointed in Mitch and John for even suggesting or promoting that this is a viable concept. The comment by Duane Peterson is typical of todays world. If it's not quick and less frustrating, I won't even try. Stick to your smart phone, your laptop and your internet world and stay away from SPORTS! What's next? An 8' high basket with a 3' diameter rim. Wow, you could be Michael Jordan with no skill at all! Mulligans on every hole, tee it up in the fairway, a 6' bump????? Don't put these people in front of me or they may find a titleist from a punched 2-iron lodged up their ***!!!!

Will and Marty, thanks for taking the time to post your comments. We also love golf, but are concerned with the lack of growth in the game. We aren't alone. Many course owners and equipment companies, with major investments in golf are also looking for solutions as we are learning since introducing this idea in late January. We are finding that we may have touch an exposed nerve in golf, which isn't a surprise.

Hey, many of us have moved on from the old "big course" mentality, to enjoyable & quick-play Hybrid golf several years ago and havn't looked back since, except to wonder why so many golfers continue to beat themselves up playing the standard golf game. It's like insanity, where you keep repeating the same thing over & over again expecting a different outcome! Our recommendation is to stop complaining about the time, cost & difficulty issues and switch to quick-play alternative golf. You might actually have FUN!

Is it so bad for golfers to actually want to play the GAME, not have to dig into their kids college funds to do so and to smile and have a good time while on the course...and at the same time speed up play. Sorry...just don't see the downside of Flogton.

Furthermore, no one is saying not to get better. If you have the time and the money to do what is necessary to improve then by all means do so...you will certainly enjoy the game more with more satisfaction. In the mean time, do what is necessary to have fun and to stay on the course.

We've taken a somewhat different approach to enjoyable golf, by minimizing the game & playing dynamics to an acceptable 60% distance, and maximizing the enjoyment factors of quick, affordable & less frustrating golf. We see the upcoming sustainability factors of water & chemical restriction & eco-land-use dictating a new trend toward shorter tradtional golf courses and quicker play, which seems to be working well and growing. It provides the same traditional game in a Condensed and EZ play form, perfect for the time oriented and cost minded modern culture. Now available, 18 holes of championship golf in 2 to 3 hours on walkable & enjoyable courses!
Our Hybrid golf ball, designed for the average golfer, is now used at over 500 North American courses & ranges and has seen growth in several emerging foreign markets.
More people today just want a convenient & enjoyable golfing experience and that's what we are providing.
Anyway, who said golf has to be so frustrating, long and expensive....not us!

I don't see why there can't be an easier version of the golf game. After all, we have fast pitch and slow pitch softball which are easier versions of baseball. We have flag football which is an easier version of football. We have pick-up basketball, three-on-three basketball, half-court basketball, etc. which are easier versions of basketball. All were designed for those who don't have the skills or physical abilities to compete in the main sport but still want to play.

I ask the question, "What percent of golfers go out every time and play completely by USGA rules?" No gimmes, no mulligans, no improving lies, Etc.? I dare say 70 to 80% deliberately break the rules in some way or other. Certainly that's true of us recreational players.

Why not have a game like flogton for us other golfers! I'm 70 years old now and still play slow-pitch softball and love it. Let me play flogton in peace, and I love it.

You wouldn't use a baseball on a softball field...would you? It's out of scale... the ball goes to far, reducing the fun and challenge... it's the same thing with the standard golf ball and shorter golf courses.

Hybrid Golf is the "softball" version of the traditional golf game, designed for quick and less frustrating play on shorter courses! The Hybrid golf ball looks and plays like a standard golf ball, but has been designed with DTW (distance-to-weight) playing dynamics (meets USGA Standards), providing an enhanced "big course experience" on shorter courses. Seniors love it!

Indeed most rounds played today are certainly not played by USGA rules entirely. Gimmies on tap in putts are probably the rule in most places. With my foursome playing on slow crowded public courses, we have invented the "Lost in Plain Sight Rule" for the ball that was seen landing in the rough or even fairway, no where near OB or a hazard, and still cannot be found. The pros would have a cadre of assistants out there flagging their ball. So we allow a free drop at the site we're it was thought to have landed, penalty free. This rule is especially helpful in the fall given the autumn leaves littering the ground. Likewise, on shots OB, we search the course, and even the OB area for a short while, but if we don't find the ball we drop at the point where it went OB, and incur a 2 stroke penalty obviating the need to hit provisional balls or return to the tee. These rules speed up play immeasurably.