With 11 sections of the course offered this spring and 239 students enrolled according to the WSU University Catalog, both enrollment statistics and figures from the Students Choice Awards vote indicate golf as being the best one-credit course to take in Pullman.

This term, eight sections of Beginning Golf are offered as are two in Intermediate Golf and one for Advanced Golf.

“It’s a life skill that is incorporated into business far beyond what anyone believes,” course instructor Les Davies said. “I have a very close friend who is the CFO for a big tribal casino on the coast and his whole corporation is about those getaway golf trips and then incorporating business around them.”

Davies said the growth of golf on TV and in the inner-cities of America has made it an intriguing and accessible sport for younger audiences. At WSU, it gives students the chance to get outside and learn a new sport at the nationally-recognized Palouse Ridge Golf Course.

With three classes structured off ability level and intensity, the allure of taking a golf class at WSU largely has to do with its approachability to a diverse body of students.

Beginning Golf is more mechanical and designed for those aspiring to test out a new sport. Intermediate Golf fine-tunes the fundamentals of the golf swing with students who are serious about the sport and Advanced Golf focuses on the execution of a golf shot with a transition from the driving range and putting green to the golf course itself.

“I find about 25 percent of the class really taking it and starting to understand and learn and get better,” Davies said. “And then about 40-45 percent are interested, but not quite sure, so it’s kind of a feel out. And that other percentage is taking it just because they need to take an elective credit and get outside. I think most people hopefully are taking it to learn a new sport.”

Being a sports pastime of America and the focus for social interaction in the corporate world, a golf class is a way for WSU students to experience a new sport and possibly prepare for their future. In a friendly setting with instructors who tailor their teaching style to the individual, the passion displayed out on Palouse Ridge in the fall and spring is unmistakable.

“For me, it’s when that person breaks through and realizes that with the least amount of effort, and getting their mechanics correct and the ball just explodes off the golf club, and you see their face light up and it’s like ‘Wow! That was something,’” he said.

Davies said he’s been playing golf for about 56 years and considers himself fortunate to be able to pass the sport on to people.

Reporting by Braden Johnson