Kangarila - no more worrying over club selection...
August 24, 2010

Weird name perhaps, but then 'oozlers' and 'bingle, bangle, bungle' are just as odd. It's got something to do with crossing a kangaroo and a gorilla, but we won't go there... More importantly, Kangarila is a revolutionary new golf format played with a ball that's a cross between a golf ball and a dice - so the ball determines what club the next shot must be played with, not you.

	The Kangarila golf ball, with its seven marked areas that determine the choice of club for the next shot

Kangarila's rules are easy to understand (and come handily packed in every box of balls) and the shot scenarios it creates add variety, excitement, and above all a great deal fun to a game of golf. It is sociable, interactive, tactical, and introduces an element of real luck, but skill and adaptability reamin key elements to win at Kangarila. After all, who ever thought of chipping around the green with a fairway wood not so long ago, and now it's done in the highest circles!

All you need to play Kangarila are the specially marked balls, which come as a boxed set of 16 (two-piece balls, comparable to the top quality big brand names), with 4 sleeves of 4 red, 4 blue, 4 green and 4 purple (each player plays his or her own colour), and just five clubs: a wood and a wedge, a long- and short-iron of your choice, and your putter.

Then you basically play exactly as usual, except that for all shots other than tee shots and putts, you must use the club indicated by the topmost segment of the ball. You can play any of the usual scoring formats - stroke play, match play, Stableford... and in singles, three- or four-balls. (For a short video of Kangarila in action, click here)

Kangarila Ltd is a British company, launched to promote and develop the game of Kangarila. During research and development of the rules, it became apparent that the game is extremely well received by all golfing demographics and is applicable to all golfing occasions whether corporate or society golf days, tournaments and competitions or informal rounds.

The game also acts as a great training aid, requiring players to learn a broader range of shots with each club, therefore increasing their versatility and resourcefulness. Golf pros who have trialled the product are very excited by the additional levels of interest that Kangarila can generate for them, and those who run golf academies feel it's a great way of getting kids into golf, as well as enticing non-golfers into the game. It's a real development for golf, which will bring benefit to all of us who love the game.

"Because Kangarila creates shot scenarios you wouldn't have played on the golf course before, it is a great training aid for anyone that wants to improve their shot-making skills and have a lot of fun on the way," says Paul Grotier, PGA Professional at The Essex Golf & Country Club.

There's a famous story of Tommy 'Thunder' Bolt, a very fine American pro and winner of 15 PGA Tour titles in the 1950s and '60s, including the US Open of 1958, but with a legendary bad temper. Club throwing was his speciality, but he also broke a fair few. The story has him in a poor lie in deep rough, asking his caddie "What do I take?" To which the caddie replied "Two iron, Mr Bolt".

"Are you crazy?", Bolt yelled, "a two iron from this lie?"

"It's the only club you have left, Mr Bolt", said the caddie. Try your hand at Kangarila and you might experience a similar emotion, if not - we hope - for the same reasons.

For further information, to buy the Kangarila golf balls, find events to play in or get help with organising your own Kangarila society or corporate golf day, visit www.kangarila.com