I'd think that there would be a stricter criteria for being "athletic" than tripping over ones feet when one walks
If you walk it's about 4 1/2 miles, and you are on your feet for over 4 hours. If you carry your bag it's carrying around 25 lbs. It takes muscular development to hit a driver over 200 yards and eye hand coordination to control the face contact +/- 1/10 of a degree swinging the club at up to 100 mph with the total contact of the ball taking place in around 1/1000 of a second. Many match play events and US open qualifiers are 36 holes so you can double the effort and concentration So yes, golf can be a sport......and in a cart, from the front tees, shooting 100...it can be a pastime. One of the reasons to watch golf on TV is that it is one of the few sports that takes place on a varying, designed landscape ... that rich people spend a lot of money on to make beautiful. All tennis courts are pretty much the same, football fields, basketball courts. But in golf each course is an individual composition that takes analysis and provides it's own gifts and tragedies. One other reason to watch is golf take place on a scale much larger than most sports. I could tee up a ball at home plate and hit it over the centerfield fence with about a 9 iron. I could hit a five iron out of Minute Made Stadium and over Crawford Street. The last reason to watch golf is it is the gold standard of human civility. There are honors, etiquette and you call penalties on yourself. It's great if you play the game, but I fully understand if you think it's pretentious and boring.
I think it's a scale rather than 'yes/no.' I propose this scale: sport:athleticism <--------------|--------------> game: skill Where track would be towards the left side of this scale (they still require some skill, so they're not 100% sport, just 99.9%), chess would be on the far right. Golf is more skill than athleticism. 30% sport?
I agree. Try just going to a driving range, and see how far you can drive the ball. There's technique, as well as strength involved in the sport of golf.
I like to play golf. I like Tiger Woods on my Wii. I can think of a million things better than watching golf on TV.
What did George Carlin say about watching golf on tv? "It's like watching flies ****." Yeah, pretty much.
IMO, watching some of the bigger tournaments on TV is very enjoyable based almost entirely on watching shot strategy and players dealing with the elements. Its not for everyone though. Unless you play on a consistent basis, I don't think one can appreciate the sport fully.
Golf should be put in the same category as darts, bowling, shuffleboard, etc. The types of games were you take turns, there isn't a lot of physical activity, there isn't any running, and old or fat people can do it with relative ease. I wouldn't call them sports, but to each his own.
We can add Charles Barkley, David Wells, and a few others to that list. John Daly, at one time, was predicted to be the future of the sport and was very good player at times.
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IMO, If you dont break a sweat from being athletic (humidity doesnt count), it isnt a sport. Competitive? Of course, absolutely. This is why I get so enraged when the idiots on the radio call Tiger Woods the best "Athlete" in all of sports.
No. There's no defense. If Mickelson could jump out from behind a tree and block Tiger's putt and yell :GET THAT *$$%# OUTTA HERE!" then it would be a sport.
Yes its a sport, you need strength to hit the ball, skill, and to walk all 18 holes, and never sit in like 4 hours, its very competitive too. I watch on TV, but not the all coverage, or I do other things while im watching, like reading or something.
Golf is a sport. Its takes athletic ability to be good at golf. You are actually making athletic movements while swinging a golf club. Nascar is not a sport. The only athletic move the driver does is climb in and out of the car. The pit crew are more of an athlete than the driver. Now if the driver had to get out and do all the things his pit crew does while making a pit spot, then it might be different.
It's a sport. It is. And cheerleading, which is MUCH more physical, is not a sport. NASCAR is also not a sport, but that's for darn good reason.
When Michelle Wie made the cut or whatever it was, Jim Rome said any "sport" where a 16 year old girl can beat grown men is not a sport. That sums up how I feel about golf.
