Why golf is the greatest game

As complex as people make golf out to be it really isn’t in fact golf is one of the simplest games. Simple because the aim of golf is to hit a ball the least amount of times possible to get it into a hole, and then repeat the same task on holes of different length and feature until the game is over. Golf is typically played over 18 holes although socially 9 holes of golf is very common, professionals play a tournament over 72 holes in four days. The reason why golf is great though is that golf has a handicap system to even out golfers of all standards so they can play and enjoy golf together.
To understand how a handicap works we first must understand the concept of “Par”. Par is the amount of shots allocated to play a particular hole for a perfect golfer; there are typically three different types of holes on a golf course Par 3’s, Par 4’s and Par 5’s. The ideal is that to play a hole in Par you will have 2 putts, so on a par three you would take one hit to put the ball on the green followed by two putts for your Par 3. Therefore on a par four you would take two hits and two putts and on a par 5 three hits and two putts for your par. If you played golf like this it would by the golfing world be termed as regulation golf, if you have watched or played golf however you will have noticed that it tends to be anything but regulation a lot of the time even for the professionals. This matters little as it is the score on the card that matters at the end of the day not how many of each type of shot we hit.
The Par of all the holes on the course is then added up to give us the par of the course, typically around 72 and our handicap is calculated relative to that Par. So if you consistently scored 100 your handicap would be 28 allowing you to take off 28 shots from your score at the end of your round to give you the magic par 72 score, and as your typical score came down so would your handicap. This adjusted score is referred to as your Nett Score. Handicaps also work to even out the best golfers for instance if you had a one of the worlds best professionals playing at your club and they consistently had only 66 shots the would be given a +6 handicap meaning at the end of there round they would have to add 6 shots to give them their Nett score. This is why golf is the greatest game as you can see it is very possible that an in experienced golfer off a 28 handicap could play a game of golf with one of the worlds best compete over 18 holes and beat them. There is no way this could happen in any other sport imagine a game of tennis between a novice and the world best not only could the novice not compete but both parties would no doubt struggle to enjoy the experience.
It is worth noting that professional and elite amateur events are played without using handicaps to truly find out who is the best golfer. So sorry no British Open trophy without a few years of practice.