Golf is enjoying the biggest burst of enthusiasm the sport's ever known. It's now so cool, it hurts.

Tim Southwell, editor of Golf Punk magazine, explains how golf got attitude and how it can change the world.

Nicky Wire, The Manic Street Preachers' bass player explained his love of the game: "Golf dignifies people,"he said. "Golf turns bad people into better people."Twenty five years ago, however, if you got on a bus with a set of golf clubs, people would look at you like you were wearing a monkey suit. As a 17 year old, I used to get on a bus every day to go and play golf. Old people stared as if I was dangerous.

Michael discovers the sticky glove one second too late.Teenage girls would snigger as though I was the funniest thing they had ever seen and teenage boys punched their palms with their fists and made throat-cutting gestures. Golf was about as cool as dysentery and anyone under the age of 60 who played the game had to be some kind of freak or loser. But that was then, and this is now.

In the last 10 years particularly, golf has undergone a monumental democratisation. "Pay and play"courses have opened the way to first-timers. These courses have also helped drive some of the crustiness out of established golf clubs through economic necessity, if not some new-found desire to do the right thing and let people play without a member and handicap certificate. Open the pages of any newspaper these days and you'll see the world's most famous movie and pop stars on the links: Michael Douglas, Puff Daddy, Hugh Grant and Eminem—golf punks one and all. Justin Timberlake, Cameron Diaz, DJ Spoony, Robbie Williams and Adam Sandler... the list goes on and on.

Golf is also the acknowledged second sport of many of the world's top professional athletes. From David Beckham to Michael Jordan; Michael Schumacher to Kelly Slater. These people are role models to their adoring public and their obsession with golf only feeds more fans into the sport.

Driving ranges seem to be popping up all over the place, opening up the game to a whole new generation of players who are turning their curiosity about the sport into action. Driving ranges used to have a kind of deserted Wild West town feel about them not any more. Where there used only to be cab drivers and crusties from the golf clubs, there are now armies of players aged anywhere from eight to 80, practising their swings and dreaming of Augusta. And many of these people don't look like golfers—they look cool.

Is that Hugh's arse? Nice.Now there's a generation of golfers who take the game seriously but want to celebrate the fact that it is great fun too. At Golf Punk magazine we get letters and emails from men and women of all ages who have a genuine love and respect for the game but also want to be entertained. They know they may never get to play off scratch, but they're going to have a blast trying. If they have a bad round, well, hell! Let's talk about that one good shot over a pint or three.

Johan Lindeberg, the fashion designer who kits out golf stars like Jesper Parnevik and Freddy Jacobson, had begun to wage his own campaign to change perceptions about golf several years back. Lindeberg, the man who brought Diesel to Europe before setting up J. Lindeberg clothing, is convinced that golf has such potential power that it can do genuine good in the world.

Swing while you're winning."I believe you can change the world through golf,"he tells me. "Most of the world's leaders and big decision- makers play golf. If you can get them to dress differently , they might start to think and act differently."Whatever you think of such ambitions, you have to admire his sheer determination to make things more interesting.

The JL belt was last year's number one, must-have golf accessory. The fact that the likes of Bono and indie band Athlete wear them only helps further the golf cause.

Lindeberg and other fast-catching-on labels, have realised that a splash of colour and a dash of swagger on the fairways will not ruin the game, but will encourage more people to play.

When was the last time golf got onto the front pages of every broadsheet in Britain? When Ian

I think I just hit Madonna.Poulter's trousers (designed by Saville Row fashion guru William Hunt) turned up at Scotland's Troon Open in 2004. For four days, a golf pro was one of the most famous people in the country. Poulter's fellow Tour pro Nick Dougherty, a swanky dresser with a nice line in unusual haircuts himself, crystalised the potential of golf in a recent interview with Golf Punk: "If golf carries on the way it's going,"he said, "then it'll be the biggest sport in the world. All we need to do is keep sending out the right messages: golf is brilliant, golf is fun."