Golf: Sport or hobby?

[Capt. Mike]

My terrace, excuse me, lanai, overlooks the green of a par 5 hole.

So I observe a fair amount of golf.

Is golf a sport, or is it a hobby?

(The resident alligator thinks it is merely a place to sun one’s self.)

[t walgamuth]

Hemingway would have said game. The only true sports were race cars and bullfighting.

[Autoputzer]

I call it one of the "manly pseudo-sports," along with fishing, pool, video games, target shooting/hunting. It requires minimal physical strength and conditioning, and the more money you spend and the more you do it, the better you get.

[Mike D]

Originally Posted by Autoputzer

I call it one of the "manly pseudo-sports," along with fishing, pool, video games, target shooting/hunting. It requires minimal physical strength and conditioning, and the more money you spend and the more you do it, the better you get.

Bite your tongue! Fishing requires "minimal physical strength"? Hah! You've obviously never carried a cooler full of ice and beer down a dock and into a boat! Why once I walked nearly fifty feet, only stopping for a brief pause, to get into the boat.

Fishing, it ain't for the weak of heart!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51224468

[barry12345]

I have heard it classed a hobby more than a sport over the decades. I have no ideal of why.

Standing in a field beating your balls with a stick perhaps should have it's own special category.

[Autoputzer]

Originally Posted by Mike D

Bite your tongue! Fishing requires "minimal physical strength"? Hah! You've obviously never carried a cooler full of ice and beer down a dock and into a boat! Why once I walked nearly fifty feet, only stopping for a brief pause, to get into the boat.

Fishing, it ain't for the weak of heart!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51224468

An older friend (old girlfriend's father) caught a 250 pound grouper. He cut up the fish, but saved the head in a trash can full of water so he could show it to everybody. While showing me the giant fish head, he said that if he didn't have an electric reel he wouldn't have been able to reel the fish in.

I agreed, saying things might have turned out differently. The fish could have ended up showing my friend's head to all of the fish's friends, instead of the other way around. The guy died about three weeks later.

A co-worker grew up in the South Pacific, and was a world renowned spear fisherman and freediver. He was spear fishing around a pier when a giant grouper started stalking him. He speared the fish and hung on for the ride. He had to let go when the fish swam between the pier pilings, though. We always figured he'd meet his end inside a large sea creature.

[INSIDIOUS]

Originally Posted by Autoputzer

I call it one of the "manly pseudo-sports," along with fishing, pool, video games, target shooting/hunting. It requires minimal physical strength and conditioning, and the more money you spend and the more you do it, the better you get.

Hunting? seriously? Gimmie your numba so I can call you to help next time I have to drag a 300# buck 250 yards out of the swamp alone in the dark. ... every one of them brutes is a chore. but at least I get to eats them

[Autoputzer]

Originally Posted by INSIDIOUS

Hunting? seriously? Gimmie your numba so I can call you to help next time I have to drag a 300# buck 250 yards out of the swamp alone in the dark. ... every one of them brutes is a chore. but at least I get to eats them

So, using that logic... rotating the steel-rim tires on my pickup truck was a real sport. Ha!

I pulled into a parking space at work one morning, and there was a buck sleeping about ten feet from my car. I waited until he woke and ran off before getting out.

[Capt. Mike]

Originally Posted by INSIDIOUS

Hunting? seriously? Gimmie your numba so I can call you to help next time I have to drag a 300# buck 250 yards out of the swamp alone in the dark. ... every one of them brutes is a chore. but at least I get to eats them

What in tarnation are you doing alone in a swamp after dark?

[Capt. Mike]

My father used to play golf. I never took to it.

From observation, it seems to be that you hit a ball, then drive over to the little lake with a long pole to get it. Or, if not, going over to the trees to look for it. When you get it, you hit it again until you get on the ‘green’ and then gently tap it until you get close to a little flag standing up. When you get close, say a couple of feet, you pick up the ball, get in the cart, and drive 15 yards to a new spot and start again.

All without breaking a sweat.

[Mike D]

Ahh, but don't forget the math. By some arcane method you count the number of times you strike the ball with the club, apply some mathematical formula and arrive at a number of five or less which you then mark on your scorecard.

[t walgamuth]

I like the idea of golf since it is a sport you can participate in until you can't walk any more....kindof like autocross. And sometimes the old buggers win. I used to play golf but that sort of evaporated once I started with the children thing.

[Capt. Mike]

Electric reel?

What kind of whack-job-hippie is he? Did he have to stop half reeled-in to recharge it? Why not a good old reliable ICE powered one?

[t walgamuth]

It wasn't dark when he shot it silly.

[Capt. Mike]

Was it uphill, both ways, during a snowstorm at least?