*Note that 20 includes fathers who were in town for parent's weekend.
I have since given some ground and decided that I could consider Golf a sport, but it got me thinking and at least interested in looking at what actually makes up a sport.
Dictionary.com provided this as their first entry for sport as a 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. Read the other entires.
With that being said, I will say that I agree with parts of that definition and not others. I would define a sport as this: An athletic activity requiring MULTIPLE skill SETS AND physical prowess with a competitive nature.
Now under that definition, it is hard for me to consider Golf a sport, and here are some of my arguments. Afterwards I will also provide my own counter arguments.
1. Golf does not particularly require physical prowess, as demonstrated by John Daly and even Phil Mickelson during his last Masters win.
Obviously these are only two examples, and one could say that the majority of professional golfers are physically fit. I DO NOT disagree with that, but the actual playing of golf does not particularly require that. Tiger Woods doesn't sprint to his ball or run laps around the greens. Yes, it takes endurance to swing a club the number of times these guys do, but that is muscle memory and repetition, not physical prowess.
2. Golf is one of the only supposed "sports" where professionals statistically play well into their 40's and 50's. Physical prowess usually takes a toll on your body, and certainly this can be seen in some golfers, but Golf is one of the only sports where this is possible or even seen. There is a Seniors Golf Tour - enough said.
I guess what it comes down to for me, is there really isn't a physical prowess component of golf. Is it too much for me to ask for a little running or physical strain when considering something a sport?
With all of this said, I do recognize the counter arguments to mine.
1. Tiger Woods. His off season workouts have been publicized and we all know the guy is jacked. Do I consider him an athlete? Yes and perhaps within the top 3 in the world right now. However, just because an athlete plays something or competes at something, does that make it a sport? I am still on the fence. Maybe, just maybe, Tiger Woods is so good at Golf and so dominating because he is an athlete competing against some non-athletes.
2. I certainly recognize that Golf is one of the most mentally taxing sports - if not the most and it definitely has multiple skill sets, certainly more than other things I consider sports. BUT, doesn't that kind of just make Golf a SKILL?
3. People have also told me I am biased against GOLF because I never played it competitively. This is a valid point, however, I never played Lacrosse or Hockey and I certainly consider those two things sports.
Throughout this whole ordeal, I have made numerous reference to "athletes." So, again, I decided to look up what dictionary.com considers an athlete to be: 1. a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.
This definition is even more interesting. It makes absolutely no mention of any mental attribute. Technically it helps my case, but again, I don't necessarily agree with this definition. I DO believe that an athlete should have some mental abilities, and perhaps this definition assumes one will read between the lines and decide that for someone to trained or gifted in something, they have to have considerable mental skills regarding their "activity."
Obviously from my above statements, I don't believe an athlete should be contingent on his/her participation of a sport, so that is the part of this definition I disagree with.
I'm still on the fence about golf, but it's up in the air. (Clearly this is all personal opinion and subjective to me)
Here are some other things I don't consider sports:
NASCAR Racing
Poker
Curling
Bowling
If you want to watch a good sport tonight, check out the Warriors vs. the Suns. If the Warriors win and the Nuggets lose tomorrow night, Golden State is in the playoffs.
There can be only one.
Please comment on this, because I know, no one agrees with me.
-Lates
1 comment:
Well i am probably going to get yelled at for this, but what the hell. If you are going into the arguement that golf is not a sport, then i have to bring up mine, baseball is not a sport. yes golf has our fatties, mickelson and daly. But they are the minority these days, but there a bunch of big boys that are the top dogs in baseball. And yes baseball you do have to run around the bases once ever 30 minutes when you are up, if you dont get out that is. Golf there is no running very true, but on average they have to walk about 3 miles in 95 degree weather in pants, yes pants, which i think is a close enough matchup. They are both similar sports, both have a person swinging a club around to hit a little white ball. Oh ya baseball has their ball thrown fast, and they can hit it a couple hundred feet, very impressive. What about golfers who can hit their 7-irons over the longest of fields. Even a average player can make the green monster look like a little hill. And im not even going to bring up the fact that baseball needs steroids to hit the ball these days. I know im going to get yelled at for this but hey, dont mess with golf, anytime you wanna play just give me a call, ill show you how much of a sport it really is. Tall Tim
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