4. Golf Makes Its Bow
It might seem like a fairly simple element that Hobbit fans had wanted included in the film in some way, but the inclusion of Gandalf's story about Old Took great-grand-uncle Bullroarer (grandfather of Bilbo, who is half Baggins, half Took) who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a full-sized horse, and who unintentionally invented the game of golf in battle feels like a conscious nod towards the fans. Here's the story as it appears in the novel, which is almost word-for-word as it appears in the film:
He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of The Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.
By no means an important narrative inclusion, the decision to reference the story nevertheless proves once more Jackson's conviction to adapt the book as a fan for fans.