I need to apologise from the outset. I’ve got a disgusting habit on the golf course. When things are going bad, out comes the phone.
It’s almost unconscious. I sometimes don’t even realise I’m doing it until I’ve spent five minutes doomscrolling and someone is telling me to crack on and take my putt.
It’s got to the point where I’ve got to leave the phone in the car – so I don’t even have the temptation to let my mind drift.
Because I’m missing out, right? I’m missing out on the company. I’m missing out on the ambience. I’m missing out on what makes golf really special.
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I lay myself prostrate at your feet not just to ask your forgiveness, but to sound a warning. Has technology gone too far in golf?
It’s everywhere. From the watch on your wrist, to the digital scorecard in your pocket, and the science in every dimple of your golf ball, we can’t escape it.
And it’s only going to get more pervasive. We’re just starting to scratch the surface of artificial intelligence and as it permeates every other aspect of our lives it’s naïve to think it won’t seep onto the golf course as well.
But do we need to dial technology back? Along the way, are we losing sight of what golf is all about?
A golfer looks at their phone on the course: Source: Adobe Stock
Are we too reliant on golf technology?
“There is a risk with technology, not just in golf but in every single walk of life, that just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s a good thing,” said my colleague Tom Irwin on our recent episode of The NCG Golf Podcast.
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“Is it additive? Is it enhancing the experience, or is it damaging it and materially changing it into something else?
“You can talk about rangefinders, where there is an art to the distance a golf ball travels – and lots of factors. [There’s] Wind, firmness of ground, and knowing the number, but there is so much in these technologies where it can factor in all that stuff. Is that not removing skill from the game?
“Is it not just a step too far away from what golf was supposed to be – where a massive part of it was judgement? Are rangefinders and distance technology removing some of that art?”
Change is coming at every level. I’ve been criticised online for arguing that paper scorecards will cease to exist within the next decade.
It’s not that I want this to happen, it’s that it feels inevitable. The technology is there already. Millions of scores are already being submitted on apps and those numbers are only likely to increase.
At some point, golf clubs will figure out it’s better for the bottom line not to pay for 20,000 bits of card every year and put that cash to something else.
That will be a sad day. Because a scorecard isn’t just a record of a round. It can be a souvenir from a special day. It can be a memory trigger.
I’ve got drawers full of them and picking one up transports me back to that day. I can even picture the shots I hit. You can’t do that staring at a number on a screen.
Simulator golf is huge right now, but can playing a pixelated version of the opening hole at St Andrews ever be a patch on experiencing it for real – of feeling the wind whip in off the West Sands beach and the butterflies surging in your stomach as you prepare to tee off?
I find myself in conflict with the technology question all the time. I’m a frequent adopter of new kit. If there’s an innovation in golf, I’m likely to have tried it or owned it.
There is definitely a place for it in the game. But do I want a map of the hole displayed in my AI glasses and a virtual caddie reading the putt for me?
Do I want to be always online? Or is there something in the joy of golf that should make us want to disconnect – if only for a few precious hours? Should golf courses become tech free zones?
Now have your say on golf technology
Have we crossed the Rubicon with golf technology? Is there no going back, or should we dial back our reliance on technology on the course? Let me know in the comments or get in touch on X.
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