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I'll
get right to the point here. Golf is not a sport, it's game.
The
Sydney Olympics are a memory now but the golf big shots are trying
their hardest to make golf a medal event somewhere down the line.
Numerous articles by golf enthusiasts call for the inclusion of
the "sport" of golf on the grounds that it's popular and the "sport"
can only add to the cachet of the Games.
Let's
reveal golf for what it truly is. It is a game that is played by
millions of people around the world. It can be played by young and
old, fat and slim, and those in shape and out. Golf is clearly a
game that is accessible to all people (provided you can pay the
green fees). But is it a sport? No.
Dictionary.com
defines sport as "An activity involving physical exertion and skill
that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken
competitively." It is the first part of the definition that precludes
golf from being a sport: "An activity involving physical exertion..."
Unfortunately,
I don't think there's a whole lot of physical exertion going on
at the local golf club. Every time I drive by a club I see plenty
of less than fit human specimens making the rounds. Golf carts,
caddies, and the golf bag carriers that people roll behind them
remove the majority of the physical (i.e. lugging a heavy bag for
several kilometers) side of golf. In my books, if you can get off
the couch after several years of inactivity and complete a round
without breaking a sweat, it's a game.
Golf
is a mind game more than anything else. How can I maximize my drive?
How can I use the wind to get the ball where I want it? Which club
will do the best job for this situation? This places golf in the
category of chess. I don't think that too many people would argue
that chess is a sport. Give two people a chess set and tell them
to walk through a meadow with it while playing and you've got golf.
Why
then is there such a push on to get golf into the sports category.
By all accounts, it's already there. It's in the sports pages and
the sports news. Still, however, many folks want golf included in
the Olympics as well. In a nutshell, calling golf a sport and including
it in the Olympics would admit many golf "athletes" into an exclusive
club.
Ask
the question sometime: "Do you do any sports?" "Sure, I golf." Armchair
athletes, has-been athletes and never-were athletes can all proudly
proclaim that they are "sportsmen" if they play golf.
The
older you get, the more seductive this becomes. You can't run, play
basketball, bike or do anything else like you used to but, by gosh,
you can play golf! You're still an athlete. Aging boomers are prime
candidates for this argument.
Some
may point to the buff physiques of the new crop of golfers. Tiger
Woods is definitely in shape. Did he get that way from playing golf?
Nope. He got that way from lifting weights.
Others
may point out the coordination required to get off a really good
drive and the precision required for putting. If that's where golf's
athleticism lies, let's get pool, darts and bowling on the nightly
sports newscasts.
So let's
just put golf back into the game category and forget about making
it an Olympic event. I somehow don't think that the guy who can
do a round or two of golf is in the same physical category as someone
who runs 40 kilometers or lifts 600 pounds. Until golfers carry
their own clubs around the course and jog between holes, it's a
game.
And
don't even mention baseball.
Copyright
© 2000 Stephen Van Esch. All Rights Reserved.
Stephen
Van Esch is a writer and instructional designer living near Toronto,
Canada. He is the owner and CEO of the Text
Pound (http://www.textpound.com) and runs a weblog called
BlindEye (http://www.blindeye.net).
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