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Urban golf is a game, derived from the original game of golf, in which individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole or at a specified target using various clubs. Urban golf is currently becoming popular across the world in many varying formats. Its origin is ambiguous but is believed to be started in Scotland in 1741 outside The White Hart Inn in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh by a Duncan Thomas. There are now many organizations across the world actuating this seemingly destructive pastime. Shoreditch Golf Club () formed the first 18 hole, par 72 open tournament in London in 2004. Since 2004 Le 19ème Trou (The 19th Hole) From France () organizes many events and was the first team to organize a national championship (The French City Pro tour). NW Urban Sports () out of Portland Oregon helped start World Urban Golf Day in 2007 in association with Urban Golf Australia () and urbangolf.org () currently in Portland, Oregon, USA. Previously out of Oakland, California, USA the Urban Golf Associations () Bi-Annual Charles Bukowski North Beach Invitational in San Francisco predate this by a few years with a smaller format. Other urban golf associations are springing up from New Zealand to Russia () to Argentina, and are listed below. Unlike these organizations, which use public city areas, Cross Golf, a variation on Urban Golf, exists in the form of Natural Born Golfers () from Germany and Urban Golf Unit () from The Netherlands. Cross Golf utilizes disused urban environments, building sites, rooftops, canals, hotel lobbies, school campus sites, and industrial areas as courses. In the United States, cross golf is typically played on grass, anywhere in rural and suburban areas, excluding golf courses. Cross golf courses are usually built around college campus and playing fields, parks, backyards, hay fields, and campgrounds. In general, any piece of private property (in which the owner supports the construction of a temporary course) can be defined as a cross golf course. Cooper’s Lake in Slippery Rock, PA () and The Links at Thistledown in Campbelltown, PA () are the main venues for cross golf in the US. Both sites have been hosting competitive tournaments since 2011. The Links at Thistledown established a summer league in 2014. Cooper’s Lake hosts two tournaments annually; the Cooper’s Lake Open and the Cooper’s Lake Championship. They are considered to be the unofficial major championships of urban golf and cross golf, due to their attraction of high-profile players, trophies and prize money, and challenging course layouts that test all aspects of an urban golfer’s game. ==Anatomy of an Urban Golf course== The fundamental difference between Urban Golf and its verdant brother is the lack of nature and the high frequency of public houses. As in normal golf, many holes include ''hazards'' but these are natural to an urban environment and are not ''bunkers'' (or ''sand traps''), but street furniture and drains. Often many unexpected situations can arise from the environment such as dogs not kept on leashes tend to chase balls, players dropping clubs down drains, traffic, etc. The Australian Urban Golfing style consists of a set target such as "play to the beach" or "play to the pub" lowest strokes the winner with the emphasis being on freestyle elements along the way such as "who can pop over that" "around that corner by bouncing off that tree" etc. In some cases, an urban golf or cross golf course is created in fields and backyards. Individuals and groups meet up to mow tee boxes, fairways and greens with their mowers. The fairways and greens may have unique shapes and some urban golf holes meander through wooded areas, placing a premium on ball flight and accuracy. Courses can be 9 or 18 holes. At Cooper’s Lake, the courses are set up like many of the natural golf links. They are designed to fit the natural terrain and the grass is mowed down to complete the layout. No dirt is moved in the process of creating the course, except when the 18 holes are dug into the ground. Oftentimes, the course may feature various heights of rough (including a thick, penalizing primary rough), natural and artificial water hazards as well as straw bale pot bunkers. Just like in links golf, unpredictable bounces are a common occurrence on Cooper’s Lake courses. Wind is also one of the main factors in determining the difficulty of the course. When the ground becomes firm and the wind picks up, the course plays very similar to a links golf course, making it one of the few places in the United States suitable for links-style golf. The fairway height is slightly higher than the greens; which are usually mowed down on the lowest settings. A weed trimmer provides the finishing touches around the holes. At the Links at Thistledown, each neighbor participates in the construction and maintenance of the course. Players, at both Cooper’s Lake and the Links at Thistledown, use almostGOLF Point3 balls as their official ball for tournament play. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Urban golf」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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