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Reasons why GOLF is lame - Democratic Underground
I hate to begrudge anyone who enjoys the sport, and I don't mean to judge anyone.
But I think these are some important things people should know about and consider in regards to the increasing popularity of this sport.
1.
It's golf. It makes bowling and ping-pong look exciting.
Ok, this is strictly my personal opinion and me being a smart-ass.
Feel free to ignore this one.
Next.
2. No cardiovascular activity.
From a health and exercise point of view, golfing provides relatively little exercise and health benefits.
You are driving around in a golf cart all day for the most part, so you aren't even getting very much low-impact exercise from walking.
3.
Golf takes up vast amount of land, for little value to the public in return.
By that I mean, with the space taken up by a single golf course, you can put in several picnic areas, a bunch of baseball diamonds, tennis courts, basketball courts, scenic lakes and ponds, biking trails, jogging trails, volleyball courts, you name it.
Activities that a family can enjoy and really benefit from.
4.
A golf course is enjoyed only by a relative few persons at any given time, whereas a good public park can be enjoyed by dozens, if not hundreds of families at a time.
People need open spaces where they can relax and exercise, spend time with their family, take part in high-impact sports activity, kids need a designated, safe space to play in after school, etc.
But when you put in a bunch of big golf courses instead of using the space for some good-sized public parks, you waste all those opportunities.
5.
Let's talk about all the lost health benefits, since the issue of healthcare is a major concern right now.
Americans are overweight because of too little exercise.
Many people don't have access to a decent, nearby public park, so all they can do is sit at home in front of their computer or TV all day long.
Hence, people are suffering from more health problems, end up paying higher insurance premiums or go without, because they can't afford the higher premiums, are excluded because of being a certain weight, etc.
Look at a map of almost any metropolitan of the US, you will find an abundance of golf courses everywhere, but relatively few public parks that are of significant size to support the non-golf sporting activities mentioned above.
Everyday, as golf is getting more and more popular, cities are tearing up scarce open spaces to make room for more big golf courses instead of public parks.
Tiger Woods is making golf more fashionable for young people, but I can't think of anything that's really positive coming from the increasing popularity of the sport, for the reasons stated above.
Maybe someone would like to convince me otherwise?
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I'm about as much of a golf fan as you.
Bores me to tears.
You make some really good points on top of that though.
I'm sure someone will be along to find something good about golf.
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It's about the experience of playing with friends, getting away from the stresses of life, and dealing with personal weakness.
There is a vast amount of mental power required to play golf well.
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When I was a kid, I was told that I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground.
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Rodney Dangerfield - Caddyshack
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2. No cardiovascular activity.
From a health and exercise point of view, golfing provides relatively little exercise and health benefits.
You are driving around in a golf cart all day for the most part, so you aren't even getting very much low-impact exercise from walking.
1st off, I walk.
About 5 miles per round.
Even. And I stress even if you ride a cart, unless you're used to that particular activity, you will be sore as all heck from the waist up.
You will use muscles that you didn't even know that you had.
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In the same way that billiards is a game.
Or playing darts.
that's not really a criticism, because I like playing billiards.
Except that billiards doesn't swallow up acres of public land like golf does.
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But yah - golf is a very difficult, highly skill-intensive game.
It's not a sport.
I don't like golf, but I like plenty of other non-sport games.
Calling something a game and not a sport is certainly not an insult.
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Main Entry:2sport
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 a : a source of diversion : recreation b : sexual play c (1) : physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in
Yes it was an olympic sport two times.
http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/past/index_uk.asp
Not all games are sports.
But all sports are games.
Golf is a sport so it is also a game.
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Golf is one of the vast majority of games that aren't sports.
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The main reason why golf is a sport is because it involves a good amount of physical exertion.
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So let me know when the next world orgy championship happens, I'd like to see that.
Last person left standing that can walk is declared the champion.
btw, I do agree golf is a sport but using that definition as an example why is silly.
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Comparing it to billiards is kind of dumb.
I've played both.
And they are incomparable.
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Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7c-nZIyfc
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I'd rather stay inside and play the real thing.
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I own a table*, and a (very cheap) set of clubs**.
Billiards tables don't differ nearly as much as golf courses do.
Pool isn't played in weather.
Pools is rarely played as a solo game, while amateur golfers very often face off against no one but the course itself.
Both are games.
Golf is a sport, even when played by amateurs.
Pool, as played by most amateurs, doesn't reach sport-levels of physical challenge.
Pool pro's, and higher level league players, etc., do raise it to a physical level I'd call sport.
All my opinion.
(* Hated the cigarette smell of bar pool.
Blundered into some money and bought a table to avoid that.)
(** Retailed about $160 at Target, but I bought them as a clearance item, off season, for $80.)
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I guess you could run and get a cardio workout, but that would look silly.
I love golf.
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My advice to anyone who's never golfed, don't!
Frustrating in the extreme.
Looks easy as hell on TV.
Hitting the damn ball properly is an enormous accomplishment to begin with.
Then you have distance to concern yourself with.
Bunkers and weeds and trees and shrubs.
For the life of me, I could never hit the ball properly with my irons.
Maybe 50% of the time, I was ok with drivers off the tee.
Putting is good fun, could do it all day for the challenge because it isn't difficult putting the head on the ball and hitting it properly.
Another factor is time.
A round of golf takes easily 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours.
This game will gobble up enormous amounts of your time.
You just don't get good at it by playing courses.
Tons of practice time are required to learn your clubs and adjust your swing for placement and distance.
If you need time away from the house and spouse, golf's your game for sure.
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1. Golfers after hitting a ball must run as fast as they can to where it lands, immediately hitting it again.
Time to get through 18 holes will be factored into the score.
2.
Rival golfers encouraged to chant, "Hey, batta, batta...
Scha-wing, batta, batta!"
3.
Number of strokes to complete a hole = number of shots you do
4.
Body-checking allowed
5.
One club, that's it.
6.
Go over par, lose a finger.
7.
Sand trap promises but doesn't deliver on implied danger.
Bee farm "hives" filled with bees will be placed in them
8.
Order of players determined by pre-game Caddyshack trivia
9.
Miss an easy putt, 10 lashes by leather-clad dominatrix
10.
Screw the masters jacket, trophies, and giant checks...
Give out WWE-style golf champion belts
TlalocW
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Speed golf, play 18 holes as fast as possible and time factors into your score (no cart allowed).
Similar to #3, I played a tournament where, for each beer you complete on a hole, you saved 1 stroke.
A good management game since the more you drink the worse you golf.
One club.
At the end of the day, when the course is basically empty, everyone throws $20 in a hat and grabs a club.
You play a couple of holes (usually at least one par 3, 4 and 5) and the low score gets the pot.
Sometimes we play skins as well.
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!. I'd go for that.
I'd be TERRIBLE at it, but I'd go for it.
2.
I'd be all for this too.
I think there should be 'quiet' courses and 'rowdy' courses.
3.
Not that into drinking.
With my score, I'd be a dead man.
4.
Not into contact sports.
5.
People DO play this way.
My brother in law easily outplays me just with his 7 iron.
6.
Not a Ninja.
7. Have encountered angry bees nests on a course.
It actually DID add a little something to the game.
8.
Better than doing so via mumbly-peg.
9.
You play at the same courses I do?
10.
The 'Claret Jug' wasn't always the prize for winning the British Open.
It used to be a belt.
Honestly, I'd be all for playing a round with a lot of your rules.
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1. If I were to say "my opinion", is there any way that my opinion could be other than personal?
And if I say "In my opinion, your sport (insert sport here) is valueless" that is judgmental.
2.
Not everyone who golfs uses a cart.
Many do walk the course for exercise, a walk of many hundreds of yards, up to several miles (more or less depending on the skill of the golfer and the accuracy of his shots.)
3.
It is true that a golf course takes up a chunk of land, but it is eco-friendly.
The roughs, woods areas, water hazards, etc.
Provide living space for various creatures.
Not very many courses are used at night, so there is little requirement for lights or extensive plumbing facilities such as one finds at a NASCAR track, professional athletic coliseum, etc.
Jogging, walking, bicycle riding can be accomplished on existing roadways and/or sidewalks - exercise opportunities abound.
Picnics can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own back yard, or one can arrange a multi-family picnic in the form of a block party.
4.
Some say that more American are overweight due to improper diet than to lack of exercise.
Poor exercise habits is contributory, but exercise is easy to program into daily activities - stairs rather than escalator (we have become so lazy we even use DOWN escalators), standing at the desk for periods of time rather than sitting, parking at the extreme limits of store parking lots, etc.
People spend a lot of money of golf equipment and the actual playing of the game.
Jobs! Manufacturing, groundskeepers, wait staff in the snack bar and restaurant.
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But I don't think the advantages overcome the negatives.
The land issue is the big one.
You're devoting all of that vast space just for one single activity.
It doesn't make sense.
I mean, one or two golf courses here and there is fine.
But when you have something like half a dozen or more golf courses for every one decent sized public park, that to me seems like a monumental waste of public space and squandered opportunity.
Or when you have like a dozen golf courses concentrated in a relatively small urban space, that makes no sense at all.
140-250 acres is about the average size of a golf course, or as I heard someone else put it, about 7300-10,000 square yards?
How many football fields is that equivalent to?
Like a 100 or 200 football fields?
I mean, wow. If you think about it, its not worth it to devote so much of our scarce land for one single leisure activity.
And let's face it, these golf courses are generally designed to attract a very narrow segment of the society, namely the wealthy and senior class.
Maybe not all golf courses are like that, but in general I think they are.
Aside from the class aspect, golfing is just not a very family friendly activity that you can take your kids along.
I mean, I sure don't know any kids who get excited about playing golf, do you?
Maybe miniature golf, lol.
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Whats all this talk of "public land"?
For some reason you think if the golf course wasnt there, whoever owned the land would just give it over to the state for them to build a park.
More than likely if the golf course wasnt there, 100s of houses or condos or a big ass walmart would take its place.
There are very few county/state owned golf courses.
The ones that are, have probably been there for a long time.
Did you conduct a survey of your local golf course to find out just wealthy and seniors are playing there?
Around me there are varying levels of courses, some you can play for $20, others you have to shell out $$$$ just to become a member.
I see tons of young people at the lower priced courses.
Where exactly do you live that there are more golf courses than parks?
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With the acreage, but if you add in the parking for thousands of fans, plus the seating for them, suffice to say it is huge.
There are several NASCAR tracks, other tracks.
They don't get much use except during race week.
The yardage in your post is not square yards, btw, but rather the length of the 18 holes.
140 acres is much more than 7300 square yards.
The Swamp, home of the Univ of Fla football Gators, doesn't see a lot of use on a day to day basis.
Big area, lots of asphalt parking, big lights.
When you do your math as to the number of football stadiums that will fit on a golf course - don't forget to include the bleachers and the parking areas.
Most high schools amd many colleges have similar (in layout if not in size) fields.
Not used on a daily basis.
The county I live in has two golf courses, but many more football fields.
I go by the nearest one several times a week, and did not see a single picnic being held in it.
Other than a few families of birds that nest in the bleachers and maybe a rat or two, there was no wildlife at the HS football field.
It is used for soccer and football, and then sits.
Vacant.
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Takes up much more space then a baseball stadium or a basketball stadium.
And they are much more common then these professional sports stadiums.
Not a valid comparison.
a sports stadium is also often used for large events such as music concerts or holiday events, especially when the sport is out of season.
But you can't use a golf course for anything other than...golf.
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How many Nascar race tracks are there?
One or two in the entire country?
(I know nothing about car racing, except I know that race tracks are nowhere near as common as golf courses.)
Are you really trying to compare one or two Nascar race track to the 17,000 golf courses in all of the US?
Terrible comparison.
And a high school football field takes nowhere near the space that a golf course does.
No valid comparison there either.
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Claim.
If you really want to get picky about valid points, nothing you have said supports your "personal opinion" that golf is lame.
Use of the facilities for any purpose, size of the facilities, number of the facilities - none have anything to do with "lameness" - you just don't like golf.
I don't play golf, never have, never wanted to so I don't really have a dog in this fight.
You are absolutely correct - a single HS football stadium (field, bleachers, parking) does not take up as much space as a single golf course.
How many colleges are there that have football stadia?
How amy high schools have football stadia?
edited to add
There are over 36,000 public and private high schools in the US as the data in the 2001Dept of Edu Statistics (not all will have football stadia)
There are 4140 public and private 2 yr and 4 yr colleges (not all will have football stadia)
There are over 100 tracks of various sorts - nascar, sprint, camper world truck, budweiser, etc
Tracks are not normally used every day.
The football stadia lie idle many days.
Have you ever heard of a family picnic in the Astrodome?
This is what you wanted to use the golf course for - why not the big arenas?
Respond if you wish.
I won't.
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Football fields, baseball fields, basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts are provided by high schools because they provide healthy, productive uses of public space for all their students.
They provide hundreds of students in every high school with team activity and daily exercise.
Golf does not teach you team work, because it is not a team sport.
The health benefits of playing golf for growing teenagers is minimal at best.
In any case, no high school in the world can afford to build a golf course for their students, so there's not much point in discussing it.
Good night.
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Sorry, no one, and I mean no one, looks good in golf clothes.
That includes Tiger Woods.
He looks better than most in them, but he'd look much better in non-golf clothes.
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If you mean knickers and berets a la Payne Stewart, few if any golfers wear that anymore.
The only thing that keeps people from wearing t-shirts on courses are the dress rules most of them have.
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Here's two pictures of Obama, one while he's golfing, one in his regular attire.
Which one does he look "dorkier" in?
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I usually wear black, tan, or gray.
(I dress that way everywhere.
Even to cut the grass!)
You couldn't tell if i was dressed for golf, for work, or to go to the store.
So, you're completely wrong.
GAC
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Go play 18 holes in a cart in upper Michigan and don't complain to me about how your body feels like it just got hit by a truck the next day.
Better yet, walk and play just 9 holes anywhere on an undulating course with no caddy to carry your bag.
Talk about cardio.
Really dumb post, bro.
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That way my green fees will remain cheap and the courses won't be crowded.
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...played on a really big board/table.
If golf is a sport, so are chess and pool which require a similar combination of strategy and precise mathematic calculation.
For that matter, let's add pro bowling.
If you don't believe me, look at the bellies on Tiger and the other pro golfers.
(Women golfers/bowlers included...)
TYY --->>
Ymmv (Shuffleboard, horseshoes, curling...)
PS--->>
How did this topic get relegated to the dungeon?...
Touchy subject?...
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I see it all the time and it never ceases to amaze.
Golf at top pro level is such extraordinary high caliber it allows pathetic appraisal that it's merely strategic.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of physical variables on every shot.
I can calculate everything perfectly but if my swing plane is outside in, or my wrist is bowed at the top of my backswing, or my alignment is slightly off, then a mediocre to abysmal outcome is inevitable.
The reason the TV networks have on course commentators following the lead groups is the type of lie and the weather/playing conditions can severely alter the requirement of the individual shot.
Yeah, that's exactly like chess or pool or even bowling
Frankly, this topic is always a great litmus test for basic intelligence.
That's blunt, but it fits.
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You just reminded me of all the reasons golf is so boring to watch.
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A little defensive are we Mr.
Dooger? Sorry... I didn't mean to suggest that my golf summation might venture to include you...
TYY
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1. Exciting? I used to consider it incredibly dull, pointless, and elitist.
And it CAN be all those things.
But when I had reason to start playing, I found it was personally challenging.
As a result, I've found watching it to be more interesting too.
Still, everyone has differen't likes/dis-likes.
To each their own.
2.
Exercise. I walk and carry my clubs (about 20lbs worth) whenever possible, and try to walk/play at a quick pace.
The course I usually play is VERY hilly.
So much so that I wear hiking shoes, rather than golf shoes, as they make getting up some of the hills easier/possible.
3.
Land Use. While there may be better uses for the lad, there are also worse.
The course I play used to be a gravel quarry.
Another in the area used to be a landfill/dump.
4.
People served. Par 4 and Par 5 holes can have two groups (of 2-4 players) playing at once.
(Par 3s are two short to allow that.) Thus, at any one time, there can be 50-100 players on course.
Based on waiting times, the course I usually play exceeds this at peak hours.
OTOH, since a round of 18 holes takes around 4 hours, the course isn't FILLED from 7am till dark, so usage is less the first and last 4 hours of daylight.
Beyond that, I don't have numbers.
All considered, I'd say golf courses serve fewer people than well populated softball/soccer complexes, but far more than most park lands with walking trails.
YMMV
5. Exercise again.
Let's look at the other side.
THe only time I ride a cart is when playing with my mobility challenged father in law.
By the end of a round he is tired and sore from the minimal walking, plus swinging the club several hundred times (when you include practice swings and our not-so-good talents.) He's not going to win any marathons, but with golf he gets out and gets in some physical motion.
I'm not saying golf will save the world.
Far from it. Most American style courses use far too much fertilizer, pesticides, and water.
And many are tied into an elitist country club culture (ironically strong right-wingers who always decry how 'elitist' liberals are) which, frankly has a history of continued racist and chauvinistic behavior.
So, there are problems, of which the PGA and other major golf powers seem totally oblivious.
For a counter-culture view, check out this site:
http://www.pasturegolf.com /
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In my area, a somewhat rural one, there are almost NO golf courses on public land (open space isn't exactly hard to come by either).
I'm not sure what the percentages are in larger metropolitan areas either.
Most courses that are open to the public are still on private land.
Why would there the presumption that if this land was not developed to build a golf course (public or private), it would be developed into a public park?
Regardless of what you think of the cardiovascular activity involved in golf (and I think it's more than you presume) why would the same argument not be made for a professional or college sports stadiums (baseball, football, basketball, soccer, etc)?
They take up large amounts of space and provide no cardiovascular activity for those in attendance.
The Cowboys spent a billion dollars on their stadium on an enormous piece of land, are expecting 100K people, and no more than 106 of them will get any exercise.
Yankee stadium (also about $1 billion to build including hundreds of millions of public money) is on a prime piece of inner-city real estate, and no more than 50 of 50,000+ attendees will get any exercise.
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