Warf,
Looks pretty good. I may be wrong but I get the impression that you are thinking in terms of not actually moving off of the tee and simply taking shots at the pin. That would work quite well but I was thinking of a more “conventional” sort of game requiring more than one shot with the players moving towards the hole after each shot. Along with your idea, we could have two other types of courses, full size and “Pitch and Putt”.
On the full sized course, the holes would be the normal par 3, 4 and 5 and would vary in length based on par. As in regular golf, the players choice of "club" would depend on the length of the hole, wind, etc.
If, as in regular golf, the initial tee shot requires distance, the player would normally use a long barrel cannon. This would put your ball up to 1000 yards or so down the fairway. Fairway shots would then be made with either a howitzer, mortar or handgonne. Approach shots from fairly close in, bunker shots and putts would be made with a mortar or even a handgonne. As in any cannon and mortar shooting, powder charge and angle of fire would be used to control shot distance. Long barrel cannons would be restricted to a maximum elevation of 5 degrees to keep their maximum range within reason and as stated would only be used for long "drives".
As in normal golf, each shot counts as a stroke. The target (pin/cup) on the green would be a 3 (up to 6) foot circle on a large green. Any ball that lands close enough to the pin so that that actually firing another shot would be unsafe or impractical would be counted as having been holed but an additional stroke would be recorded.
As I said in an earlier post, this will take A LOT of room. One mile = 1760 yards so a par 5 hole could easily be a mile and a half long.
“Pitch and Putt” would be played in a similar fashion except that since it’s a shorter course, only mortars and/or handgonne's would be allowed.
This is starting to come together and since rules and conduct of the game are being worked out, we probably need to form a new organization. Since golf already has the PGA and LPGA, we can be the PCGA (Professional Cannon Golf Association) and come up with a really cool looking logo. IÂ’ll bet we could make a ton of money on franchise rights and authorized logo gear. :-D