Dude, I'd get destroyed by any pro in any pro sport - that's why I'm a programmer and an amateur golfer. That doesn't prove anything except that I'm not nearly athletic enough to compete in any sport. Why would I say that golf is the most challenging sport in the world? Because there has been one man in history who hit every shot where he wanted to - and he couldn't putt. (Moe Norman) For everyone else, the challenge to master your body, your mind, and the game changes every day. If I was 6'7 and a good swimmer, water polo would be easy - and it would be easy every day. It would take some effort, but it wouldn't take any particular body or mental control. As I said earlier, the only position in sports that approximates the requirement for maximum power, maximum precision, and mental control is that of a pitcher. Golfers don't have run support to back them up though, and they have to learn more than the equivalent of 3 or 4 pitches.
The thread title is "Do you consider golf a sport?" What exactly did you imagine would be discussed in such a thread? There have been zero players in the history of baseball that have hit every pitch where they wanted to, and in fact I am reasonably certain that every hitter has actually swung and missed at a pitch. Hitting in baseball has all of the difficulties of driving a golf ball, with the addition of having a moving target. There is of course a more analogous game, its called tee ball and most people stop playing that around the age of five.
Well yeah, the movement, and A batter takes 100 milliseconds to see the 3-in. ball, and 75 milliseconds to identify spin, speed and pitch location. The batter has another 50 milliseconds to decide whether to swing, and where, before he must act. It can take nearly 25 milliseconds for the brain’s signals to pulse through the hitter’s body and start his legs moving. The swing itself takes 150 milliseconds. http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/4216783.html?page=2 Comparing that to hitting a golf ball is ridiculous. And I'm not disparaging golf at all, I love it.
I notice that alot of people hate on sports like golf, cricket, or ping pong and say its not a sport even though they have never even actually tried the sport. Try playing something like this competitively and see how hard it is.
Let's compare golf to baseball: In baseball a outfielder is sitting out there chewing gum. Maybe takes about 40-60 CPM (chews per minute). He moves about 2 FPM (feet per minute) while chewing. But when a ball is hit out of his area he has to run (this is ridculous) and usually jump because at the same time he has an insane amount of gum in his mouth. Golfers wear a thin leather glove while baseball players use a giant clam to catch a ball 5 times the size of a golf ball. The baseball player's brain gets hungry thinking about clams and the day dreaming can cause attention failure during a game. Now compare this with golfing. They don't even have to chew gum or think of clams! I love golf though they should get better uniforms than la costa polos.
I am a monstrosity of physical fitness. I have competed in competitive sports my whole life, probably more manly than most here. Football, baseball, and weight lifting in high school. I also play golf, as well as agree that it is a sport. Do poker and monopoly meet the criteria the definition I posted? I don't know, I didn't read them all. But several people on here only consider things to be a sport where there is contact and/or an immediate opponent in which you're trying to beat, i.e. football, baseball and that just isn't so.
I imagined a bunch of guys that are amateurs or never played arguing over a frivolous categorizing of this skill event called golf. Guess I was right. I was just throwing my 2 cents in.
I would love to see how many people who are saying golf isn't a sport have ever actually tried to play it. I have played nearly every sport mentioned in this thread, and none came even close to the difficulty of golf.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sport –noun 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc. Close Thread.
I used to play quite a bit. You are crazy if you think it is as hard as the sports mentioned in this thread. Amateurs can come much closer to competing against Tiger than they can competing against Mariano Rivera. Amateurs can qualify to play in the US open. How many weekend softball players do you think are getting a spot in a major league bullpen? There is a reason that hitting .300 is considered good, hitting 40% from 3pt land is good, converting 45% on third down is good. Hitting 45% of fairways or greens in regulation is a joke.
Golf is a sport. We'll know that when Tiger Woods does an Antoine Walker shimmy after a gaming winning birdie. NASCAR is definitely a sport. Bumper to bumper for 3+ hours at 180mph+ requires tons of endurance and the most precise of reaction times. Is videogaming a sport!? It requires skill, mental toughness equivalent to that needed of Game 7 of the Finals in overtime, and is of competitive nature.
I have no opinion on whether golf is a sport. I'm as bad at golf as I am at most sports. That being said, this story should add interesting fodder. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080412/ap_on_fe_st/glf_blind_hole_in_one (Of course the players that were behind them were probably wondering why they didn't play at night.)
