What golfer wants to be limited to just nine holes?

Golf purists often scoff at the idea of cutting a traditional 18-hole round in half.

Yet purveyor of golf mania Golf Digest devoted much of its June issue to the “Time for Nine” initiative that the magazine has adopted — as have the PGA of America and the United States Golf Association — promoting the virtues of half a round.

It seems that the guardians of golf see a lot of value (even if at times the magazine sounds apologetic for doing so) in a shorter, less-expensive round of golf, especially when the game itself is struggling.

“Our biggest problems are the price and the time,” says Todd Sickles, general manager at Quail Run Golf Club in La Pine. “It makes a ton of sense. I’ll never turn my back to them (nine-hole golfers).”

According to Golf Digest citing a management consultant, today’s golfers spend from 500 to 1,400 more hours a year and another 440 hours more with our children than the parents of today’s working adults did while we were growing up.

“No surprise that most of our leisure activities have shrunk to two hours, max: dinner, a movie, a workout, a (short) ballgame,” Golf Digest’s Bob Carney writes.

The Time for Nine campaign urges golf facilities to encourage more nine-hole rounds. By doing so the initiative is aiming to remove the stigma from playing shorter rounds.

And many courses in Central Oregon support the premise of the nine-hole initiative, even if few plan to make significant changes to existing nine-hole policies.

“I think we all want to do what we can to promote the game and get new people and lapsed golfers back playing again,” says Pat Huffer, head pro at Crooked River Ranch.

At Crooked River Ranch, nine-hole rounds are encouraged before 8:30 a.m. and in the afternoons, leaving the busy mornings during the peak golf season to 18-hole golfers who pay full price, Huffer says.

That is not uncommon in Central Oregon.

“For those facilities like us in Central Oregon that depend on driving as many full rounds as possible in the short season that we have, it is difficult to promote the nine-hole rounds during peak play times,” Huffer says. “I definitely don’t think anyone will discourage nine-hole play, but rather to encourage it during the fringe hours of the day where it would NOT tie up prime-time spots.”

Yet some of the region’s courses are particularly nine-hole friendly, and not just the five nine-hole tracks: Caldera Links in Sunriver, Desert Peaks in Madras, The Old Back Nine at Mountain High in Bend, Prineville Golf Club and Redmond pitch-and-putt Smith Rock Golf Center.

Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Prineville and Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters, for instance, accept nine-hole golfers all day. Meadow Lakes counts about 25 percent of the rounds played there to be of the shorter variety, says head pro Zach Lampert.

In addition, both courses offer nine-hole leagues.

“The bottom line is that the industry is changing, and golf courses will need to be flexible in order to keep up,” Lampert says. “Newer golfers, age 30 and under, are growing up in an era where there is so much to do, yet so little time.

“Nine holes for them is less expensive, less time-consuming and should still be just as fun.”

Quail Run also encourages nine-hole rounds at any time of day, and Sickles says he has seen some benefit to the shorter rounds.

For one, even though nine-hole golfers pay a cheaper rate, many still often buy golf balls or rent clubs, Sickles observes. And short rounds can help speed up play by opening up the back nine during busy afternoons.

“You’re not getting full revenue, but I’ve seen bonuses from nine-hole rounds in different ways,” Sickles says.

At Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort near Warm Springs, head pro Joe Rauschenburg says he is planning to experiment with a three-hole league, six-hole family groups, and nine-hole full memberships.

At the least, the Time for Nine initiative has many in the golf industry thinking about ways to keep golf relevant in a changing world.

Pronghorn Club near Bend will not be adding a nine-hole rate at its high-end Nicklaus Course this summer, says head professional Joey Pickavance.

But Pickavance thinks that golf just might have to think differently about how it presents the game in the future.

“If I was going to build a course today for the public, I would build it with three six-hole routes,” says Pickavance. “This would allow the option to play six holes, 12 holes, or the traditional 18 holes.

“I do believe there is a need for the quick nine holes … or in this case, six holes.”