Pub Golf: An Alternative Bar Crawl

What do you get when you combine golf and bar crawls? Pub Golf. Basically, it’s a combination of bar hopping and the fashion and rules of golf. The basic idea is that each bar has a specific alcoholic beverage that everyone must drink. The aim is to finish the entire drink in as few gulps as possible. Each drink has a per-determined par which tells how many sips the drink should be completed in. Each sip that goes over the par adds to your score, and the goal is to have the lowest score.

Traditionally, participants dress in full golf attire –think argyle socks, plaid pants, pastel polo shirts, and sweater vests. The more over-the-top, the better. Personally, I think themed events are absolutely fantastic, and I wanted to go all out. However, considering the fact that I came to the UK with only two suitcases, golf attire didn’t make the cut. I had to resort to wearing a gray tank, black sweater, black high-wasted shorts, maroon knee-high socks, and little white shoes. Thankfully none of my flatmates really looked the part either.

Not only was I incorrectly dressed, the game pretty much fell apart after the second bar. Disgusting drinks, flatemate drama, and being about three bars behind everyone else didn’t exactly create the best pub golf atmosphere. Definitely disappointing considering I’ve been looking forward to it since I heard about it from a guy who previously studied abroad in the UK. Regardless, at least some effort was made to play the game, and it was still a night to remember -my flatemate’s drunk friend dropped a glass in our toilet which caused it to shatter (unbelievably, “it” refers to the toilet, not the glass which is perfectly intact).

Pub Golf was just one night in a series of organized bar/club events during “Freshers Week” held by each accommodation. This is my second go at being a freshman, and it’s amazing how different the experience is. For Americans, it’s crazy to imagine university endorsed drinking events. However, the social atmosphere is radically different when students may freely bond while playing drinking games and taking shots together at the bar. Sure, a little more mayhem occurs (which is openly posted in the common area on a “Gossip List”) when you spend seven straight days partying (mine will actually be an overwhelming eleven days), but I can definitely say that I am glad to have experienced  “Freshers Week”. It’s interesting to considering how different freshmen year would have been at UCSC if the social atmosphere were the same as in the UK. All I can say is that if this past week is any indication of the future, it’s going to be an incredible (and exhausting) next few months. And when I come home, hopefully everyone will have jumped on the Pub Golf train after reading this article; I’m still waiting for my proper Pub Golf experience!