Alley hacks

WHACK JOB Members of the Chicago Urban Devils Golf Enthusiasts’ League (CUDGEL) know some interesting tee-off spots in the city.

When most people think of a golf course, they picture manicured greens, not glass-flecked asphalt. But all that is about to change. Frisbee golf is already popular with the jam-band set, but more adventurous types have created a new way to play: urban golf.

Urban golf—which basically involves hitting some kind of ball with some kind of club through the city—is an art, not a science. When we went out for a practice run with the Chicago Urban Devils Golf Enthusiasts’ League (CUDGEL), which hosts its inaugural match in Lincoln Square on Saturday 27, we used tennis balls and golf clubs on a course that ran through alleyways and under Dumpsters and El tracks. Players won a good number of “What on earth are you doing?” looks from passersby on several “holes.” Also typical were time-outs to pick through alley leave-behinds.

Just how do you play urban golf? Hit a ball with a hockey stick, lacrosse stick, golf club or any other implement of destruction you might find down a fairway—usually an alleyway (the street is never in play)—to an agreed-upon target (CUDGEL’s MySpace page encourages players to be creative—like someone drinking martinis in a kiddie pool). If you’ve played golf, the rules are fairly similar. If your ball lies on private property, or anywhere you can’t play (e.g., under a car, behind an abandoned couch), it’s a one-stroke penalty. A lost ball—and we lost a lot of balls, most over a really high fence—is a two-stroke penalty.

CUDGEL does take some liberties with rules on its 9-hole course. For example, after every three holes the group will stop at a different Lincoln Square pub, like Grafton’s or Ricochet’s. And players will earn extra points for wearing argyle pants. But one thing is definitely the same about urban golf and the real thing: the regular echoes of “Watch out!” and “What the fuck?!”

Organizer Jen Carroll says that the group—some of whose members took part in the recent Chiditarod—found out about the sport from the website www.urban-golf.org, a site based in San Francisco. “We thought, Hey, this looks like an awful lot of fun, and we set a date and just started going out,” she says. Members set up a website and the MySpace page, and became friendly with Lincoln Square pubs for those in-between-holes–libations. “We’re hoping to get about 40 to 50 people out…and we’ll be glad to bring people into locally-owned businesses.” (Note: If you don’t go in the bar, you unfortunately can’t finish the game, so you have to be 21 to play.)

Most residents find the urban adventurers pretty hilarious, “especially the people whose garages our balls roll into,” says Carroll. “We haven’t had any dogs come and retrieve our tennis balls—but we’re expecting that’ll happen at some point.”

CUDGEL’s inaugural match starts at the Giddings Square Fountain in Lincoln Square on Saturday 27 or visit www.cudgel.org.