I recently spent some time in St Andrews in Scotland which is certainly the home of golf.  One of the many aspects that have impressed me, in what is a beautiful University town, surrounded by glorious golf courses, is that there is plenty of free, public space that is dedicated to people practising putting.  As my photograph indicates, there are various greens, where people can simply arrive with a putter and a golf ball or two and sit and put with their boyfriend or with their children and I really thought it is a wonderful way to promote the playing of golf.  

Golf is an expensive sport and there are not many places where one can simply go along, to what is the equivalent of a park but laid out as a golf green, and put from one location to another.  It was quite busy, with families, couples and various people who clearly were not actual golfers from the way they were attired, having fun and putting and facilities like this are certainly essential if the game of golf is to be spread to a wider audience.  It is of course one of the most popular sports in the world already, but there are some signs that it is not as popular with the youth as it is with middle-aged and older people at the moment and we need facilities like this in South Africa, not to mention other countries.  That of course is true of all sports – make facilities available for more people to try out your sports, by allocating some of the profits, if any, of your sport to that.