There is no hobby like golf. For some it is more than just a hobby, it is an addiction that verges on obsession. Golf is a wicked mistress who rewards you for your performance and castigates your failures. It all starts with that first experience, where you realize it is possible to control that little white ball by hitting it with a club, guiding it to a small hole in the ground. That very experience is what has kept many coming back for years of struggle and disappointment. As Mark Twain once said, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”

Part of the struggle has been the search for an advantage, an upper hand. This search fuels the golf industry, creating the desire for an endless number of products designed to improve ability. Yet for all the clubs, balls, and everything else you can buy to make your game more effective, there are simply a majority of us who do not have the time to be out there on the course working on our game.

It has often occurred to me, during a par three that is quickly becoming a five or a pitch on to the green that ends up taking a couple of tries, that I could throw the ball and still score as good, if not better, than I do currently. I am sure I am not the only golfer to have thought of this, nor possibly the only one to have maybe given it a try in order to get out of an otherwise unplayable situation. I am fairly sure though that I am one of a scarce few to put the simple hypothesis to a full test. And so it was, on a spring day a few months ago, that I set out to see who would score better  – the golfer or the thrower.

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