Making golf horrible again

[struggle4progress]

Lawrence Donegan

... "He cheats like hell," .. golfer <Suzann Pettersen? declared in an interview with the US correspondent of the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang ...

... When Samuel L. Jackson was asked who was the better golfer, Trump or himself, he responded, "Oh, I am, for sure. I don't cheat." Asked to name the worst golf cheat he’d ever come across, Alice Cooper said: "I played golf with Donald Trump one time. That’s all I'm going to say" ...

.. This is a guy who has hit the links an estimated ninety-six times in the last year, signaling an obsession that leaves that noted lover of golf Barack Obama (who played twenty-six rounds in his first year in office) looking like a dilettante. He is passionate about golf in the way he is passionate about himself. It is possible to believe, therefore, that he might care if one of the pros he reveres stood up to him and criticized his behavior ...

... An estimated eight hundred courses have closed over the last decade, a figure that grows on a monthly basis. The number of golfers in the US fell by almost two million in the five years to 2016, according to the National Golf Foundation. Growth in participation among younger players is nonexistent. No wonder: kids don’t have to wear a collared shirt and khakis to the skatepark. Meanwhile, their parents’ discretionary dollars are shifting to other, less time-consuming, less expensive, and less socially exclusive pastimes. And as golf gets less diverse again, you’ll find a dozen Donald Trump-alikes in every clubhouse bar, reveling in their newly-granted permission to be willfully offensive. Who wants to spend $1,000 a month in membership dues to listen to their bile? ...

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/09/trump-making-golf-horrible-again/

[TlalocW]

1. Golf has always been horrible

Waste of massive natural resources to play a game, not a sport (if you can comfortably drink beer while doing it, it's a game), used for a long time to discriminate and heading back that way again according to this article.

Among other things - paper napkins, diamond engagement rings, bad restaurant franchises - that Millenials are supposedly killing, one of them is golf. I say, "Go, Millenials! Keep up the good work!"

TlalocW

[Awsi Dooger]

3. Golf is fantastic and will not go away

Extremely difficult sport to play. That turns people against it, because they see pros on television maneuvering the ball at will and it looks simple enough. But when those people actually attempt the sport it's difficult to merely make decent contact, let alone make the ball cooperate.

That's why the greatest athletes in the world are particularly fascinated and frustrated by golf. They have mastered everything else and can't believe they struggle so mightily on the golf course. One famous athlete after another holds the top golfers in absolute awe.

I have lots of respect for hackers who stick it out. Yesterday I played with a guy at my home course who is determined to improve. He slices the ball into adjacent fairways or out of bounds, but doesn't get embarrassed by it. Yesterday on 17 he sliced the ball so badly it went into the middle of the adjacent 16th fairway, at least 100 yards off target. I pointed out where it finished and he merely drove his cart over there and picked it up, as the group trailing us waited for him briefly. No big deal.

After the round we went to the range and I changed his grip slightly, moving his left thumb about a quarter inch to the right. That thumb needs to be right of center and he had it left of center. That made such a difference on the range. He couldn't believe it. He was actually hitting some pull draws instead of weak slices. Obviously it won't be a miracle cure but small fixes like that are necessary as someone learns the game.

Golf surged beyond realistic need in the early 2000s. Too many courses were built and too many companies like Nike thought it would be a future gold mine. Now the millenials are taking it in another direction and that is fine. The strongest courses will survive and thrive.

In my area of Miami we had a few courses close but the ones that inherited the customers have really benefited. Recently one of the courses seized upon the uptick to put in a popular franchise restaurant in the clubhouse. That really picked up the midday traffic and number of rounds played also jumped. The course used the added revenue to buy an entirely new flock of electric golf carts. They are fantastic. Now they have added an assistant greenskeeper and the greens are in the best shape in 20+ years.

[PJMcK]

5. Disagree

Try walking a championship-sized course while carrying your bag of clubs weighing 15-20 pounds. The walk alone can be anywhere from 5-8 miles. Then you have to use remarkably difficult hand-eye coordination to make a good shot. And you have to do this with precision 70-100 (or more!) times.

Additionally, the physical training that good golfers develop puts the better players in top physical condition. Look at Tiger or Dustin Johnson and you'll see prime athletes. Granted, there are plenty of heavy-set golfers riding in a motor cart with a cooler full of beer. That's not the game many of us play. However, I've seen lots of weekend softball games where the players consume vast numbers of cans of beer. Isn't baseball a sport? This week in Korea, many athletes will be competing in the Curling competitions. Aren't they athletes competing in a sport? One could drink plenty of beer doing that; in fact, it's probably the only way to do it! (By the way, grandmasters in Chess have been known to sweat off pounds during a match; while they may be sedentary, they better be in good shape to withstand that stress.)

Regarding the "massive natural resources," your point is questionable although I respect your opinion. But private clubs own their land and can do anything they want with it. Public courses bring in substantial amounts of money for the city or state that owns them. Other courses open to the public are private businesses which, once again, own the land. All of these courses provide employment for the many people needed to operate a sprawling business.

The one point that has been getting a lot of attention in the past decade or so is conservation of the resources. Many courses try to use organic fertilizers and treatments to prevent or limit chemical run-offs. Some courses have taken other steps to protect wildlife and foliage. Hopefully, these trends will continue.

I'm curious if you've ever played the game. I've been hooked on it for about 15 years since I sold my last sailboat, (there's a real sport!). There are many positives about the game. First and foremost is it's a great equalizer in that it doesn't matter if you're old or young, rich or poor, big or small, Democrat or Republican: it's still the same game. A good shot is a good shot.

Second, it's a game of honor in that players have to follow the rules (which really aren't as Byzantine as the article states), keep score and call penalties on themselves as generally, there aren't referees. (Plenty of golfers cheat just like non-golfers cheat in their lives.) This is unlike football or basketball where some players blatantly cheat hoping they can get away with it. As the great amateur, Bobby Jones once said, "You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank as to praise him for playing by the rules."

Third, it's a wonderful way to meet interesting people. Especially if you go to the course alone or with a single friend when you'll be "paired" with one or two other golfers. For the next five hours or so, you'll share a surprisingly intimate time getting to know strangers you will probably never see again! In the several thousand rounds I've played, only twice have I met really ugly people and one of them actually got arrested for attacking another golfer!

Which brings me to my final point. In "The Rules of Golf," the first chapter is about etiquette. Behaving as a gentleperson is an important and necessary part of the game. Here's Mr. Jones again, "The rewards of golf, and of life too I expect, are worth very little if you don't play the game by the etiquette as well as by the rules."

Trump ruins everything he comes into contact with. It's no surprise that he cheats.

[Initech]

2. "I'm going to be working so hard I will have no time for golf!"

Remember when fucking asshole said that? And now we're learning he cheats like Goldfinger. Gotta love it. Which is surprising to... no one.

[maxsolomon]

4. well, it's got about the worst ambassador any activity could ask for right now

the worlds most famous golf player is an obese septuagenarian clown.

[PatSeg]

6. 800 courses have closed

over the last decade? And two million fewer golfers? I had no idea.

My father was a passionate golfer and I've always tried to understand that passion, but I still don't quite get it. I've known men who would rather golf than anything else imaginable. It has to be more than the fresh air, stress relief, and getting away from one's spouse, something I suspect motivated my father at times.