As I mentioned before, here in New York we share office space with about 50 other start-up and tech companies. The company that manages the space has made some efforts to make it geek-chic: there’s a billiards room, there aren’t any cubicles, there are lots of bright colors, and there are some funky merlot velour curtains where walls might otherwise be.

Personally, I like the quirkiness of the space. But there’s a new quirk that I haven’t quite made up my mind about yet. A couple of weeks ago they installed a putting green where a makeshift conference room used to be.

I’m not sure I get this move. See, even when things seem quirky (i.e. the billiards room) they have a functional purpose (it doubles as a large conference room). But the putting green just doesn’t make sense. First of all, there’s a HUGE pole in the center of it – like, at least a foot or two in diameter (I have no powers of spatial recognition). Secondly, the entire putting green is TINY. Thirdly, there are THREE holes in this tiny space.

Though I don’t make it over there often, I have yet to see anyone utilizing this space for the purpose for which it was intended – as a putting green. As the picture shows, we have our SVP of Engineering, Matt Zelesko, using the space as a place to make a semi-private phone call sans putter. This, despite the fact that two phone cubbies were installed directly across from the putting green.

So yes, the fooz ball table in Leiden gets a lot more use.