Fling Golf? Yes, It’s Time To Hurl On The Course

A new kind of golf is hitting the fairways across the Blue Ridge region. In Fling Golf, a hybrid of golf and lacrosse, players swap their bag of heavy clubs for just one carbon-fiber FlingStick. The game uses the same golf ball aimed at the same holes but instead of hitting it, players hurl it from a modified lacrosse stick. 

Because Fling Golf moves faster than traditional golf, it’s suited for a social distancing world. No practice swings, less waiting around. 

Fling Golf is known for having a much quicker learning curve than the traditional game, says Blacksburg, Virginia golf instructor Cam Owens. While a beginner could take golf lessons for half a day and not reach the skill level to enjoy playing, novice Fling golfers can be good to go after practicing swings for 30 minutes.  

All players need to start playing is a FlingStick—Fling Golf’s tool for launching shots and hitting putts. While the ball doesn’t go as far as one knocked with a club, it has a better chance of going straight. Scoring is akin to regular golf—the fewer the shots, the better the score—but, take a one shot penalty if you go out of bounds, lose your ball, go into a hazard, or into a bunker. 

Throw the ball from the FlingStick overhand or underhand; fling it side-armed like a baseball bat or overhead like a javelin. It all works.          

Fling Golf was invented by Pennsylvanian Alex Van Alen, who grew up combining sports equipment in weird ways to entertain his brothers:  football on skates, Frisbee on bikes, sledding on Big Wheels. One game persisted—golf with lacrosse sticks. Since its 2015 rollout, Fling Golf has been played on more than 1,000 golf courses in at least a dozen countries. Whether they rent out FlingSticks or not, most golf courses allow Fling Golf to be played alongside traditional golf—often in the same foursome.

The story above appears in our September / October 2020 issue.