Just how much stuff does one person need to enjoy a round of golf?
As I write this, I’m looking at an unopened box containing a new gadget a PR person insisted on sending me weeks ago. I haven’t gotten around to trying it out on the golf course, mostly because I’m sure I won’t particuarly like it. It’s a two-in-one device: a wireless, Bluetooth-enabled speaker for playing music, with a carved-out front section that contains a handheld golf GPS device.
On the surface, it seems convenient enough. But is this device essential to enjoying a round of golf? Will it add value to the experience? Without even unboxing it, my gut instinct says no. So do my years of experience trying, using, losing and ultimately abandoning supposedly time-saving, game-changing new golf gadgets.
Am I being harsh? Dismissive? Uncurious? Maybe. But I am increasingly feeling that the gadgets of golf are getting in the way of the game of golf, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Golf gear need-to-haves, nice-to-haves and everything else
What is the absolute bare minimum required to enjoy golf? If you’ve got a ball, a club and a few holes in the ground to pursue, everything else is gravy. The more the game feels like (preferably) a walk in nature, the more enjoyable the experience.
Do you need 14 clubs? Not really. First adopted by the USGA in 1938, that rule is younger than Gary Player by almost three years. You can always use fewer clubs. Less to carry, more opportunities for shotmaking.
You don’t even really need tee pegs – it’s pretty easy to build a good-enough lie on a tee box by kicking up a small chunk of turf.
Spiked golf shoes? A modern luxury. As beaten-up as putting surfaces tend to get, I almost wonder if playing in sneakers would save superintendents significant man-hours and maintenance costs.
I’m not necessarily advocating for some sort of performative minimalist golf setup. I like my 14 clubs and my stand bag. I also love my Bushnell rangefinder, even though I always leave the Slope function off. And for riding rounds I have a metal, walled tumbler to keep a Diet Coke or a Gatorade ice-cold as long as possible. When I walk, some sort of metal water bottle will do.
Rangefinders are the rare recent invention that is a value-add to the golf experience. Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images
In addition to that, beyond a towel and a club brush, what else do I really need to bring with me to the course? The more items I babysit, the more likely it is that I leave something behind after a round. And during a round, the more likely it is that something is going to steal my attention away from the golf itself.
For me, the rule of thumb when it comes to golf gadgets boils down to a yes/no question: Does this item solve more problems than it creates? In the case of our speaker/GPS unit, the burden I am taking on is not worth the bulk. To try it out, I would need to take it out of its sleek black box and plastic protective packaging inside, plug it in for minutes or hours to charge it, make sure it pairs with my phone, carry it to my car, schlep it to the course, fumble with it along from the parking lot to the bag drop, hope it identifies my course correctly and hope it stays magnetically married to the vertical bar of a golf cart over hills and cart-path bumps. And if I do use it for music, I’ll have to set the volume so as not to disturb other groups and I’ll have to put on a genre of music my foursome will find agreeable. Yacht rock, probably…
No thanks – I’m opting out of this one in the interest of preserving whatever purity technology has not yet stripped from the golf experience. In the hierarchy of need-to-haves, nice-to-haves and everything else, I’m placing a heavy speaker/GPS combo into the third category.
As a lapsed college golfer, I still treasure the relatively rare opportunities I have to play serious competitive golf. Part of the reason I love it is that a tournament round is a great excuse to put my phone away for a few hours. This is probably a bigger deal for me than others because a lot of my other golf involves taking photos and video for my and GolfPass’ social channels (please follow!), but even so, those moments of semi-selfishness when I can ditch my device and just play for myself are precious and easy to savor. More and more tournaments are leveraging live-scoring, which requires at least one phone per group to be close at hand. Safe to say I am never volunteering for that job in my group.
It’s nice to break free of the tyranny of the screen during regular rounds, too. Yes, there are more ways than ever to track your score using your phone. But it’s not absolutely necessary to do this in the moment. In fact, I would suggest you save that task for after the round. Going back over the 18 holes you’ve just played is a good exercise in memory retention and awareness. Being present for your shots and those of your playing partners will have positive ramifications as you assess your game and look for ways to improve.
I tried the popular shot-tracker Arccos for a few weeks in 2022, and while some of the insights it showed me were interesting, I ultimately found myself thinking more about abstract numbers – Strokes-Gained figures and the like – than the actual memories of certain shots and swings. It also added yet another layer of complexity to a game where simplification is important for peak performance. Untethering myself from technology restored real perspective about my rounds.
Are you suffering from golf gadget paralysis? Share your thoughts in the comments below.