Bleeping Idiots

A recent debate between some friends and I lead me to really dig into the subject as to whether or not golf is a real sport.  Now I personally always saw golf as something that people do for fun, and as a leisure activity I would then qualify it as not being a sport.  Yet friends of mine continue to argue that due to this skill involved, golf must be considered a real sport. Here are 2 reasons why they are wrong..

1.) First of all, it is a general consciousness that the individuals who usually fight for golf as a sport are in fact people who are either too old or to un-athletic to participate in a REAL sport, such as the big five (football, basketball, soccer, hockey, and baseball.) However due to the recent debate with friends (who although half of them were girls, still are athletic enough to play real sports) I have decided to further reach into the reasons why golf is not a sport, and not only that, but that golfers are not athletes.  Here’s why, in today’s day and age where sports such as the aforementioned big five are becoming more and more popular, Athletes have begun to step up their workload.  Players and trainers are now working together to reach new lengths that were thought to never be reached, and with the advancement of technology, this process will continue.  Modern day athletes now push themselves in the weight room harder then ever before, as they strive to be better and better.  Take someone like Dwight Howard for example, Howard is 6-11 and weighs 265 pounds, and yet is one of the best athletes in sports today. Why? Because Howard has made it his business to train multiple times a day and work as hard as humanly possible in his strive for perfection. This constant drive to be the best has payed off for Dwight, as he has seen improvements every year in both points per game, and rebounds per game. Howard is seen on the right jumping high enough to kiss the rim.

Now on the flip side of things, lets take a look at the “athletes” of golf.  Now it is true that some of them may be fairly athletic in their own right ( I am sure in some way shape or form, Tiger Woods is athletic) but as a rule, golfers do not work half as hard in an attempt to strive for physical perfection as real athletes do. Why? because golf is merely a game, like chess or darts. Do they require skill? of course they do, but that does not make it a sport. Golf is just like chess and darts in that it is a hobby, a leisure activity that requires an immense amount of skill.  This is still not enough to qualify golf as a sport though, as just about anyone who wants to play golf,  can in fact play golf.  Where as not everyone who wants to play hockey, can play hockey, some people just aren’t talented enough. Take PGA tours John Daly (pictured on the left) for example.  Daly is a 5-11, 240 pound man who couldn’t even complete a 40 yard dash let alone run one in a 4.5 range like many professional athletes are able to do.  This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as Daly is concerned.  Daly once turned down an invitation to the British Opens Championship Dinner because in his words, “You can’t get this fat boy into a suit.” and that is not all, Daly has also been recorded as saying that he does not exercise or lift weights because smoking is prohibited in gyms, and if he worked out without smoking he would get sick. Daly has also been involved in many legal issues with Alcoholism, and drugs. As far as i am concerned, John Daly is the shining example of why golf can NEVER be considered a real sport and also why golfers themselves are NOT athletes.

2.) It has been argued that do to the number of calories that golfing burns, that it MUST be considered a sport. This however is completely false for a couple of reasons.  Reason one, is that never in the history of sports has the number of calories burned been a deciding factor as to whether or not a game is considered a sport or not.  Sports are more about the difficulty both mentally and physically, and about putting so much hard work into the game that you become the best player you can possible be, and golf only involves half of the work.  Golf is a game that is very mentally involved.  To be a great player you need to be able to see the angles and how the ball moves and curves on the grass.  This is a difficult task, but not difficult enough to make bleeping idiots consider golf to be anything more than a game the people play once they are to old to play a real sport. Reason two is of the “short and sweet variety” scientific evidence shows that in a standard 18 hole game of golf, that the golfers body burns up approximetely 721 calories.  This however is only in the event that the golfer walks from hole to hole and carries his own golf clubs.  This is clearly not how it is done in professional levels of golf where the players have both caddies and golf carts. Once the walking and carrying are taken out of the equation it is proven that the amount of calories burned then drops from 721 calories burned to approximately 411 calories. Now, a male who stands at 6 ft. tall and weighs somewhere between 185-195 pounds burns around 700 calories if he walks on a treadmill at an incline for 45 minutes. Which correct me if i am wrong, but the 45 minute time is MUCH shorter than the length of a standard game of golf.  So by the logic of saying that golf is a sport because of how many calories are burned in the process, people are then also saying something along the lines of “Walking up hill is the next sport to be added to the Olympics”

It is official, Bleeping Idiots has spoken! and our official ruling is golf is NOT a sport, and that playing golf is like the same thing as playing pool but without the fun part.