Play golf your way

"Play golf to please YOU. Make yourself happy; happy to be playing the greatest game, happy with occasional greatness, and happy to be with golfing friends in a great environment away from the pressure of life. Relax and enjoy the four hour experience while being thankful for the opportunity and thankful for the challenge. Life is too short to worry about score or performance. Keep it simple, enjoy golfing your ball, and have fun." -Craig Shankland

I interpret what Craig is saying above as if you want to play winter rules year round, drop another ball and play it after a bad shot, or not keep score at all, go right ahead if this is what gives you enjoyment. Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the game every year because golf isn't fun to them anymore due to its difficulty. If you are not playing in a competition or have a wager on the line, do what you dam please on the course to keep it fun. One of the fun games I play is a one man 2 ball scramble, providing there aren't any players pressuring me from behind. Supposedly, this game will show you your true scoring potential. Birdies to me equal FUN! A variation of this is to allow only one mulligan per hole, which puts a bit of strategy into the game.

One thing to keep golf fun is to be fortunate enough to find interesting courses to play. Links style golf has become my latest passion. Pacific Dunes was the first course that really liberated me from the doldrums of tree lined RTJ style target courses. I am up to around 100 rounds of golf on links courses and have found the vast majority of those to be great fun.

So, if golf is getting stale for you don't feel compelled to always play by the rules and seek out some links style courses to play. Cherish the pure shot you hit on the sweet spot that flies over the green, don't curse it.