How to play more golf : it can be done. Seriously. Here are five practical ways you can get more of what you want out of life

Golf Digest, August, 2004 by Joe Bargmann

GOLFERS ARE A SIMPLE LOT. WHILE AStrophysicists seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe and medical researchers apply their intellectual might to fight fatal diseases, we obsess over a more fundamental issue: How can we spend more time on the course? Some guys clearly have it figured out. Guys like Dan Bradshaw, 35, a 6-handicapper from Chicago, who has two children younger than 3 but still manages to play more than 100 rounds a year. Or George Weske, 41, of Cordova, Tenn., a father of three who maintains his 4-handicap by playing an astonishing five rounds a week.

"It's a way for me to keep working hard and to be a focused parent by letting off steam and reducing stress," Weske says of his manic pursuit of playing time. (It helps that he has an especially understanding spouse. "I've developed an appreciation for the game--specifically, what it does for him," says Weske's wife, Jennifer. "After he plays golf, he really gives back 200 percent for the family. When he walks through the door after a round, he has three kids jumping on him, and he totally focuses on being with them.")

While the goal of playing more golf is singular, the strategies for attaining it are many. Some you probably wouldn't be able to duplicate--or even want to. One Golf Digest reader we interviewed for this article actually sold his house for the sole purpose of buying one right next to his home course, reducing his commute time to two minutes from 20. Another increased his playing time by quitting a lucrative job to take a lesser-paying one at a company where his golf buddies worked.

But for every reader who offered an over-the-top scheme, many others revealed practical, reasonable plans for playing more golf. Here are five ways they made it happen--and you can, too.

Get your family involved

MARK WEIDENFELLER, 37, of Woodbridge, Conn., is one of more than a dozen golfers we interviewed who persuaded his wife to take up the game. Before they had kids, "I would play with friends in the morning, then with my wife in the afternoon," says Weidenfeller, who has a 4.8 Handicap Index and owns an insurance agency. "We both profited--she got to sleep late and I got to play 36." He and his wife, Jen, now have two children, ages 2 and 4, so they play together less often--but he still gets in his share of golf. "I played 62 rounds last year," says Weidenfeller.

Perhaps nothing is more admirable than a parent's dedication to spending quality time with the kids. And who says time on the golf course isn't quality time? "When we started having kids, I tried to get out there [for a regular Saturday game], but it just wasn't cutting it with the wife," says Ray Knoll, 43, the general manager of a landscaping company in Naperville, Ill., and the father of two. "I gave up my weekend golf. But as soon as my son was old enough to play, I started taking him to pitch-and-putt courses. Now he's 8, and we play almost every weekend. It definitely scratches my golf itch--and my short game is much, much improved." Knoll reports that he plays "adult golf" 25 to 30 times a year, about half as much as he did before having kids, "but I enjoy playing much more than I used to."

There's really no telling what will happen when you take your family to the course. Austin, Tex., software developer Kevin Warner, 38, discovered that his wife, Cheryl, not only likes the game but also likes to caddie for him. She's a beginner and he's a 90s-shooter who plays one to three times a month. "We play together just fine," says Cheryl, a 35-year-old antiques dealer. "But I love caddieing for him, so sometimes I just do that. I get to tell him what to do!"

Redefine 'round of golf'

SEVERAL READERS TOLD US THEY manage to play more golf by freeing themselves from the tyranny of the 18-hole round. Sneaking in nine holes before or after work allows them to stay in the game without investing four (or more) hours every time they head out. Teeing off at 5:30 a.m., Scott Posey, 39, a 90s-shooter from Berwyn, Pa., plays nine holes at least twice a week in about the same amount of time that most people spend on a session at the gym. "I play in as little as 90 minutes while my family--and probably most of my co-workers--are asleep," says Posey, who has a 5-year-old daughter. Then, when he gets home from a day at the office, he gives his full attention to the family. This solution may not seem like rocket science, but it works. And, in fact, Posey is a rocket scientist: He works for Rotorcraft Division of Boeing, in Ridley Park, Pa.

Like Posey, Elizabeth Radabaugh, 49, of San Antonio, has insomnia going for her. "For years now, I have this alarm clock in my head that goes off between 2 and 2:30 in the morning," she says. Obviously, she can't play golf at that hour, so she heads to work. As an intelligence analyst for MacAulay-Brown Inc., a Defense Department contractor, Radabaugh can work anytime she likes. When she clocks out, around noon, the courses are empty--"Many golfers won't venture out on a summer afternoon in south Texas," she says--so she's able to play quickly. Radabaugh plays two or three nine-hole rounds a month, adding to her already impressive six to seven 18-hole jaunts.