"I got some volunteers to set up 4 holes before the session and we invited people to play as they came into the room. Each volunteer manned a hole and explained how to play. Most people got to play a couple of holes before we started, but they were so intrigued that we got off to a late start.

1.      This is a perfect way to start the event - with people already playing!

2.      Plan for people getting carried away.

Next I explained the concept of Junkyard Sports and plugged your book. :) They described the most salient elements of golf: a ball, and hole, and an object to move one into another (although frustration and alcohol were also mentioned as keys to the game.) Then I invited them to form teams for 5-7. Each team sent a member to the front of the room to pick up a "flag" (a big number printed on a colored piece of paper.) Each team was to create at least one hole. They could do a second one if they had time. The goal was to design a creative 18-hole golf-course with the junk I had provided or anything else they could find in the room.

1.      Yes. Always plug my book.

2.      Don't forget the tee - many a bizarre golf club apparatus owes its success to a good tee

3.      Flags! But of course! How could we forget the flags?

4.      Yes again - anything else they can find.

They dove right in! I gave them 15 minutes for hole design. We had a slingshot made of panty hose to shoot a ball from the tabletop into a box 6 feet away. We had an elaborate system of ramps to drop the ball into a hidden hole between the stairs and the stage. There was a orange juice hazard on one. Candy traps on another, and a very tough plastic wrap hill built over an overturned chair. I asked teams to record the par on each of their flags.

1.      The pantyhose slingshot hole - a perfect example of the impact of Junkyard Golf on the very nature of our understanding of pantyhose.

2.      Record par on the flags. Ingenious! Or, during the game, each time a hole is played, the holemaster plays through and his score decides par.

Then some of the players on each team took about 10 minutes to play as many holes as they could. Others of their team remained behind to coach new players. After 10 minutes they switched so that every one had a chance to play and to coach.

1.      10 minutes for 18 holes! What a challenge!

2.      On the other hand, the coaches could have just quit and joined the fray.

We debriefed to talk about the different elements they added to create fun for one another (ensuring the hole was really achievable, adding complexity and the unexpected, etc.) We also started getting into an interesting discussion about working as a team, and limited resources leading to greater creativity. Frankly, we probably needed another 20-30 minutes to fully debrief!

Debriefing points:

-   What did you do to make it fun?

-   How hard did you make it? Why?

-   Do limited resources lead to greater creativity?

Anyway, they loved it! It was a great way to get people up and talking and working together first thing in the morning. I think it would also be an awesome session right after lunch at any conference. It was very easy to implement. Golf was also a great game for a large ballroom--it worked well for the space we had.

p.s.: don't forget the cameras!

1.      In a conference, you should play Junkyard Golf first thing in the morning or after lunch.

2.      Golf is great for a large ballroom (and also hallways, and stairs, and escalators)

By the way, we ran a scavenger hunt through out the conference. Two of the items on their scavenger list were to create a NASAGA golf team fight song and a golf team mascot. There were some very creative entries!! Also, Kevin Eikenberry gathered up all the golf clubs and put them together in one shopping bag. Saturday night he auctioned off the "golf bag and a custom set of clubs" as the last item in the auction. The $25 he sold it for put us over the $3000 mark for funds raised."

1.      Scavenger hunt. How perfectly junkly!

2.      Golf team fight song and mascot! What can I say?

3.      A really good junk-made golf club (or ball-launcher) is hard to find