Picture a combination of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer, and you have “campus golf,” the sport being played of late by Choate students on Mem Field and other grassy areas. Using regulation golf clubs, but a tennis ball instead of a golf ball, more and more students are playing this sport on campus. Students walking around in shorts and collared shirts, sporting sunglasses and swinging golf clubs, are becoming a common sight on the Choate campus this spring.

The tradition of campus golf has been around Choate for a very long time. Mr. James Davidson, who has been at Choate for 34 years, remembered, “Kids have been playing golf with tennis balls in the spring since before I was here. Everyone seems to enjoy setting up goals to hit toward.”

This year, several aficionados—William Woolford ’09, Sam Gilbert ’09, and Alexander Klaris ’09—have enthusiastically embraced this tradition of campus golf and even “taken it to another level,” according to a resident of Logan Munroe.

Campus golf is played typically with three or four people. Starting in Mem Field, the players use regulation golf clubs ranging from the pitching wedge to a five or six iron, though the most used irons are sevens, eights and nines. There are no set holes; instead, random objects are picked as holes spontaneously. “The popular objects are fire hydrants, the big pine tree by Atwater, the bin behind the home plate,” according to the three Logan boys, “and the elevated D in front of Humanities—that’s a tough hole.”

The administration’s position on campus golf was briefly expressed in a Mr. John Ford’s recent e-mail to the whole school. “Campus golf is fine as long as [the golfers] play where we tell them to play,” said Mr. Ford in an interview. “The only places they can play are on Mem Field inside the circle, and on any places essentially east, that is, on the far side of Elm Street. We also want to make sure they’re not hitting balls across the street.” Mr. Davidson also expressed concern on this matter by saying that people hit balls “even going over the roads! There has always been a concern about damage to the fields and the risk of hitting cars and people.”

In spite of these concerns, campus golf has definitely found its place as a unique tradition at Choate and other prep schools. Already taking place in almost every approved grassy field of Choate, campus golf allows golf players, as well as people without any experience in golf, all to enjoy the weather and the grass.

“It has really taken on a life of its own, especially around this dorm,” the three players of Logan agreed. “It’s a good bonding experience—it really brought us together.”