Park golf (パークゴルフ), a form of golf played in a park, was invented in Makubetsu, Hokkaidō, Japan in 1983. Esthetically, it resembles a sport somewhere between golf and croquet. The competitive object of the game is to hit the ball into a hole with a club in the fewest number of strokes. At the same time, there is also a strong emphasis on harmony with other players (players of park golf are referred to as parkers) and the natural setting of the course.
The founders of the sport wanted to keep it simple so that people of all ages could become parkers easily. A single ball and club are sufficient for a game of park golf. Courses are relatively short and the physical strain of the game is low. The cost of playing is also low and the rules are simple. For this reason, it is a good sport for children and families. Despite this, the majority of the 700,000 parkers continue to be of retirement age.
Read more about Park Golf: The Park Golf Course, Rules, Etiquette, Tournaments, Park Golf Trivia
Famous quotes containing the words park and/or golf:
“Borrow a child and get on welfare.
Borrow a child and stay in the house all day with the child,
or go to the public park with the child, and take the child
to the welfare office and cry and say your man left you and
be humble and wear your dress and your smile, and don’t talk
back ...”
—Susan Griffin (b. 1943)
“And the wind shall say: “Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.””
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)