Friday, April 15, 2005

In Response to a Comment About Golf Being a Sport or Not

You called for it, you got it- in my own words- A sport is an activity which is physically demanding (aka muscularly straining) and which requires skill, with a set of rules in which teams or individuals compete in order to further their own cause (to win) and hinder that of their opponents. My point is, you don't have defense or one ounce of athletic activity in golf. You are right-- running is NOT central to a sport, so if golf required another muscle strain I would consent, but it does not. Don't tell me walking and swinging a club are physically demanding. "Straight up running" as you put it, my enraged commentator, is NOT a sport, you are right (no competition, no defense, no winner/loser)-- but it's not more "recreational" than golf (I'm assuming you meant leisurely or for pure enjoyment in saying that). Golf, hammer-throw, swimming, tennis, rowing, NASCAR...these are not sports. Now before you get mad- are they necessarily easy? NO. Do they require skill and/or physical exertion? Of course. But they don't meet all the criteria for being a sport. People tend to get angry when their activity is not considered a sport, but it's no debasement, it's just classification. Basketball, football, baseball, cross-country running, cycling, soccer, lacrosse...these are sports. Each has tactical ways to win, and prevent your opponent from doing so by directly influencing their performances (again, DEFENSE), and each requires a combination of skills and physical demand. So there you have it, anonymous dissenter of my golf opinion. You go on the offensive like that, I'll be more than happy to go on the defensive (it's not a sport...but I still win).

3 Comments:

At 1:09 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just quickly, what is the difference between your so called sports of cross country running and cycling (races on land) and your proclaimed non sports of rowing or swimming (races on the water)? I'd say that rowing is actually the most physically demanding of all, not that that changes anything since rowing seemingly lacks something that cross country has. Tennis also. It meets all of the criteria if baseball does. And when I say this I mean that baseball's defense consists of catching and dealing with whatever the offense gives them. It is the same in tennis, except that o and d switch much more quickly. All of the other criteria are obvious. Now, none of this actually had anything to do with golf, just comment I had on some of your comments. As for golf, I obviously cannot refute your statement that it is not a sport against your definition of sport, as you obviously had previously decided that things like golf and NASCAR were not sports when making that definition. I guess it comes down to: we disagree on what a sport is.

-TOM FOOLERY

 
At 1:25 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry, just wanted to quote something you said in response to a comment in your post about Poker being not a sport:

Jay said...

Just to clarify: i threw out a few games/sports that are arguable...i do believe that golf is a sport...

The rest is irrelevant. Now you may have changed your mind or thought more about what you truly believe in your heart and soul a sport is. But this just proves my point: There is no perfect definition of "sport," not even yours, Blogger.

-TF

 
At 12:57 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom- What would your definition of a sport be?
and FYI...the biggest defensive strategy in baseball is PITCHING, something you neglected to state. which tells me you obviously dont know that much about sports.

-T$

 

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