Fun Facts About Golf for Those Not Very Good At It

I like to play golf but I don’t keep score. Why? It can be a frustrating sport and I refuse to put myself in the position of getting upset because I can’t hit that teeny ball very far or get it into the insanely small hole on the green.

I view golf not as a sport but as an activity that gets me outside, flexes a few muscles and allows me to drive a funky golf cart that make me feel a little like a Shriner who drives one of those noisy kiddy cars in parades. At least a golf cart is quiet and I see no reason to keep score when it will just cause me angst. I would rather look up interesting facts about golf. Frankly, it is hard to find up-to-date data on golf courses but the numbers have dwindled over time for various reasons. Maybe you have to start REALLY young?

You probably can guess what states have the most golf courses. According to golf-info-guide.com, Florida leads the pack with more than 1,000. The web site rounds out the top five with California, New York, Michigan and Texas. These states do shuffle around depending on what resource you use. Fun trivia.com has some clever takes on the topic.

I live in Delaware and the state ranks next to last with about 30 courses. Only Alaska has fewer. Delaware fares better on the list of golf courses per capita and ranks number 33, according to golfblogger.com but the list is from 2011. Despite its relative lack of courses, Baywood Greens, known for its spectacular flower gardens, and Bayside, a Jack Nicklaus designed course) are two of the more prestigious course around.

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The state with the most courses per capita is North Dakota with one course for every 5,400+ people.

Michigan is a state that some might think ranks surprisingly high on the list. The travel-related site Pure Michigan (www.michigan.org) does a great job of promoting the state’s courses and pinpointing where they are located. One plus for the northern parts of Michigan around Petoskey is the number of daylight hours in the summer. Michigan is at the far western end of the Eastern time zone so longer days allow for more golf. The area around Petrosky boasts the Bay Harbor Golf Club, ranked #8 in the U.S. by Golf Magazine and The Heather at Boyne Highlands is ranked 90th.

The Chicago Golf Club is considered the oldest 18 hole golf course in North America. It dates back to 1892 – just 400 years after Columbus “discovered” America. .