It started as an exercise in brevity more than anything.<\/p>\n
I tend to get long-winded when I write, so in early 2019 when I saw another media site publish a shortish essay about an extremely niche topic of some sort, calling it a \u201cCool Thing,\u201d I decided to start a column called Cool Golf Things. My self-imposed task: find something small but intriguing in golf, and say something interesting about it in 300 words or less.<\/p>\n
Decision paralysis (or writer\u2019s block) took over. There were so many cool golf things – where would I begin?<\/p>\n
I had just returned from a trip up the Florida coast that included a round at Riviera Country Club in Ormond Beach, a stunningly unassuming, clean, well-tended public course, family-owned since it was built in the 1950s. They weren\u2019t needed on the sunny day I played, but I had been captivated by, of all things, Riviera\u2019s rain shelters, which had a terrific midcentury-modern look.<\/p>\n
A perfect topic for my first-ever Cool Golf Thing.<\/p>\n
I kept to a weekly – Fridays, mostly – publishing schedule through the end of 2021 before tempering to a bi-weekly schedule for several months, then monthly. As 2025 draws to a close, I\u2019m proud to have explored 190 Cool Golf Things, but I am also ready to step back and assess what the future of the series might be like. Some of the short pieces – as well as a couple of 300-word-rule-breakers, when I\u2019ve indulged myself – have performed better than others. Golfers\u2019 media diets evolve, and I want to evolve Cool Golf Things to suit. I think the concept suits shorter-form social media videos well – I\u2019ll try a few of those in 2026 and beyond (follow GolfPass on Instagram here and TikTok here if you don\u2019t already). And I reckon I will still write a Cool Golf Thing piece here and there, too.<\/p>\n
But for now, after 190 Cool Golf Things in the bank, I\u2019d like to resurface 10 of my favorites.<\/p>\n
My favorite Cool Golf Things\n<\/p>\n
As I look back through nearly 200 Cool Golf Things essays, I bounced back and forth between describing actual discrete items and more amorphous concepts in golf that seemed to be overlooked and deserved a shout-out. Some of these are silly or sarcastic. Others turned unexpectedly emotional.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you don’t actually need the yardage.<\/p>\n
A small bucket as mental-health break\n<\/p>\n
Hitting balls can be about more than working on your swing.<\/p>\n
I had never seen houses with this feature before a round in Texas.<\/p>\n
The inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open\n<\/p>\n
One of my all-time favorite experiences covering golf.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite golf design features.<\/p>\n
Browsing golf course merch is great, especially in cozy confines.<\/p>\n
Emotional golf course sign\n<\/p>\n
This took me by surprise at an Arizona course.<\/p>\n
I’ll think about this August 2025 round for a long time.<\/p>\n
One ball, *how many* rounds?!\n<\/p>\n
This was a great submission from social media.<\/p>\n
‘I do’ enjoy this wedding venue.<\/p>\n
15 more Cool Golf Things you might enjoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It started as an exercise in brevity more than anything. I tend to get long-winded when I write,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-322488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}