There was a time when the most common questions you’d get from a playing partner on the first tee were “what’s the game?” or “how many strokes are you giving me?” Nowadays, you’ll instead often hear something like this:
“You good with music?”
To be clear, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. In fact, it’s actually quite courteous to ask the group before you break out the speaker, and in my travels I have only come across courteous people on this front. Rarely, if ever, do people just start blasting away with no regard for human life. Old Tom Morris’ brain would probably short-circuit if he heard someone fire up Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” on the links, but he’d be happy to know that whoever did politely asked if they could do so first.
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This is hardly a new debate. In fact, we had it here on this website just a few years ago, and I chipped in with the very Switzerland take of it being fine if it’s relaxing, chill music that isn’t at maximum volume, and not fine if it’s too loud/too aggressive. I mostly still believe that, though this tweet from Jake Weaver, who pondered if music on the course was just a “fad,” reignited my internal dialogue last week:
It's 2026 – how are we feeling about music on the course? Was it a fad or is it here to stay?
Me? I was very pro music, now I'm slightly anti-music but will go with it if the majority wants it. Peace and quiet on the course is my preference.
— Jake Weaver (@MidwestGolfJake) January 12, 2026
This pretty much nails where I’m at with this topic. Ultimately, it’s all about setting. Setting. Setting. At a public course, riding in carts, with a few of your chopper buddies who are just there for the booze, light gambling and the occasional par? Go ahead and fire it up. In this setting in particular, I put full trust in my brother, who, in another life, could have been an all-time great DJ. The guy just knows exactly what song to play at exactly the right time, every time. It’s a true gift.
But then you run into situations where you are paired with randoms, and you don’t ever want to be the wet blanket that says “actually,,,, I’d rather not hear any music while I’m playing.” That makes the rest of the day about as awkward as it gets. So you oblige whoever it is that asked and then, WHAM, Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” comes on and you briefly wonder how this person would react if you went full Quint from “Jaws” and smashed the ever-living s–t out of their mini JBL speaker.
As for playing at private clubs, it’s ultimately up to the host. Is it the type of club where they even allow that sort of thing? If yes, you simply defer to the member. This is also provided you’re in carts. If you’re walking, with caddies, I’d say I’m pretty staunchly against music. I actually don’t ever recall a walking/caddie situation where someone even offered to play music. It’s like an unwritten agreement, or it’s just not practical. Sure, there are very small speakers you could literally attach to your bag these days, but that still doesn’t seem like the vibe when you’re out for a stroll.
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Just last week, I played by myself, in a cart, in Florida, during a work trip. And now that I think about it, the thought of playing music never once crossed my mind. The round was sublime. Of course, I was on my phone way too often, much of that due to the fact that I was waiting on a lot of shots. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be on the phone less while golfing. F- so far.
This discussion sort of goes hand in hand with the phone one. We’re constantly bombarded with technology on a day-to-day basis. Instagram reels, TikTok videos. Sound, sound, sound. Brightness, brightness, brightness. Then we get out in nature for a few hours and the first thing someone does is pull out their effing phone to hook it up to the bluetooth speaker to blast more sound in our ears and distract us. It has become impossible to simply live with your own thoughts, and there’s no better place to get lost in your own brain than the golf course.
To reiterate, setting is everything, but I think in my very meandering way I’ve landed on bagging music on the course in 2026. I’ve been watching quite a bit of “Barney” with my son of late, and there’s a song about how you can actually hear music everywhere when you’re out in nature if you just listen. Birds chirping, trees blowing in the wind, bees buzzing, etc. The little girl who sang that honestly cooked. There IS music everywhere. Just please, for the love of God, make sure it’s less Benson Boone and more lawnmower in the distance going forward. I think we’ll come to find that it’s one of those things we didn’t know we didn’t need until we got rid of it entirely.
Do you have a “stupid” golf problem? A question you’re too ashamed to ask your close friends? A conundrum that needs to be talked out in a public forum? We’re here to help. If you have etiquette-related inquiries or just want to know how to handle some of the unique on- or off-course situations we all find ourselves in, please let us know. You can email me ([email protected]) or send me a DM on Twitter/X (@Cpowers14) or on Instagram (@cpthreeve).
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
