Golf an Olympic sport?

[laura.weislo]

IOC adds golf, rugby for 2016 Summer Games. Baseball and softball ended in 2008.

Is golf more Olympic-worthy than baseball? Is it sufficiently international? Discuss.

 

[usedtobefast]

IOC adds golf, rugby for 2016 Summer Games. Baseball and softball ended in 2008.

Is golf more Olympic-worthy than baseball? Is it sufficiently international? Discuss.

people complain baseball is a slow game, but golf? "a fine walk spoiled ".
baseball/softball are really hard games to play. golf is for retired people.
no offense Tiger Woods, but golf? sorry. right in there with curling. stuff you can do when drunk, like bowling...

 

[BroDeal]

This is all about money. The IOC wants the biggest sports stars at the Olympics. The IOC will make money if they are there. The athletes get none of it. I wonder how long it will take before the athletes start demanding a cut of the media rights.

 

[Moondance]

I personally oppose sports like golf at the Olympics. I feel that the Olympics should be the highest level of achievement within the sport; and for certain sports that are currently still part of the Olympic calender that simply isn't the case.

Tiger Woods might be happy if he wins gold in Rio, but he'll still be bummed out if he doesn't win a major that year. I think the following sports should also be eliminated from the Olympics: basketball, baseball, football, softball, tennis and road cycling.

Winning the gold medal is perfectly nice for any of these sports, but you're on crack if you think Lebron James would rather have his Olympic Gold Medal than an NBA Championship. Samuel Sanchez would've happily thrown his Gold Medal in the trash if it would've meant he finished ahead of Valverde in the Vuelta this year. And that simply goes against the Olympic spirit IMO.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I think the real question is that is golf a sport? It involves little to none fitness at all.

 

[Moondance]

I think the real question is that is golf a sport? It involves little to none fitness at all.

Is ping-pong? That's part of the Olympics.

Golf is surely a sport, I just think it isn't an Olympic sport.

 

[Greg Johnson]

I think the real question is that is golf a sport? It involves little to none fitness at all.

sport
  /spɔrt, spoʊrt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [spawrt, spohrt] Show IPA
Use sport in a Sentence
See web results for sport
See images of sport
–noun
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

 

[the vagabond]

Of course golf is a sport. It can be played overweight, but so can rugby, American football, curling, etc.

Don't kid yourself. Most golfers are multi-sport athletes. Camilo Villegas is a near pro-level cyclist, but even an overweight booze-hound like Daly was a star football player. These guys have tremendous hand-eye coordination, excellent nerves, great finesse learned over decades of constant practice, and superior mental stamina.

I never could understand this argument. Golf doesn't even come close to NOT being a sport.

 

[BroDeal]

Of course golf is a sport. It can be played overweight, but so can rugby, American football, curling, etc.

Don't kid yourself. Most golfers are multi-sport athletes. Camilo Villegas is a near pro-level cyclist, but even an overweight booze-hound like Daly was a star football player. These guys have tremendous hand-eye coordination, excellent nerves, great finesse learned over decades of constant practice, and superior mental stamina.

I never could understand this argument. Golf doesn't even come close to NOT being a sport.

So miniature golf is a also sport?

 

[broken chain]

Golf is a game not a sport.I wonder how many golfers take beta blockers?Do you think they should test for them?How about the other stuff.Phil and Tiger look like they have packed on some solid muscle mass.

 

[usedtobefast]

don't forget about john daly.
they could always add jacks ...

 

[auscyclefan94]

Of course golf is a sport. It can be played overweight, but so can rugby, American football, curling, etc.

Don't kid yourself. Most golfers are multi-sport athletes. Camilo Villegas is a near pro-level cyclist, but even an overweight booze-hound like Daly was a star football player. These guys have tremendous hand-eye coordination, excellent nerves, great finesse learned over decades of constant practice, and superior mental stamina.

I never could understand this argument. Golf doesn't even come close to NOT being a sport.

Fat people can be good at Golf. It's a lazy sport. You never see a fat ping pong player and a ping pong player has to be able to move around the table quickly.

 

[CentralCaliBike]

I think the real question is that is golf a sport? It involves little to none fitness at all.

If you have to walk (and the pros do) and include the coordination required I consider it a sport, not an endurance sport, but still a sport. On the other hand, I really do not care for golf much at all and cannot hit the ball off tee to save my life.

 

[R.0.t.O]

Golf? Well you can understand the financial reasons, and it's certainly no less athletic than many existing sports like archery, equestrianism or pistol shooting.

The bigger problem is Rugby 7's. Come on, we're not even talking about proper rugby (Union or League, let's not go there...) 7's is a novelty, rugby-lite version of the game; it's always good to go watch a 7's tournament but it's so far from the pinnacle of the sport of rugby it's insane. I know it's been in the Commonwealth Games for a while now, and some countries have sent some pretty decent players to that tournament but still, would you allow 5aside football into the Limpics??

 

[Greg Johnson]

Fat people can be good at Golf. It's a lazy sport. You never see a fat ping pong player and a ping pong player has to be able to move around the table quickly.

Fat people, as you so elegantly call them, can do hammer throw too. Also Olympians. Even if some golfers hide it under a few pounds, I can assure you they have to have a level of strength and fitness.

Good luck with that argument though.

I'm just looking forward to the uproar when Michelle Wie attempts to enter the men's event in Rio.

Cheers
Greg

 

[usedtobefast]

golf. a concept or sport? this thread is great.
go ahead, play golf.

 

[iwannabeabiker]

Golf is a sport. It takes as much training and practice as it does to be a good cyclist. However I don't beleive it should be an olympic sport.

 

[Moondance]

Fat people can be good at Golf. It's a lazy sport. You never see a fat ping pong player and a ping pong player has to be able to move around the table quickly.

There are a bunch of fat slobs playing sports like American football, Sumo wresling, boxing (all of which are unquestionably sports) and those are just the ones i can think of right now. I don't think you can use the fat argument.

 

[craig1985]

In my experience golf is one of the hardest and most technical sports I have done. Most pro golfers hit about 1000 balls a day, certainly not lazy.

 

[53 x 11]

People keep telling me that cycling is the new golf. Now with golf being added as an olympic event and the reduction in track events it looks like golf is the new cycling!

Anyway, the olympics are just a massive money circus, if the clowns want to play silly games let them.

 

[rgmerk]

As far as Moondance's argument about road racing not belonging at the Olympics as it's not the most prestigious event in the sport, there's something to that.

However, I reckon road cycling deserves a bit of latitude, even though it's clearly less prestigious than winning a Grand Tour (or, for that matter, probably the Worlds or some of the classics).

For most of the population of a host city, it's difficult to actually get to see many of the decent events. Sure, you can get cheap tickets to see Zimbabwe play Colombia in the field hockey, or sit a mile back in the main stadium for the heats of the 400 metre hurdles and the shotput finals, but the good tickets to the good events cost a fortune and/or are reserved for whomever Coke, Visa, and the IOC prefer to shower good fortune on.

By contrast (and except for Beijing) everybody can come out to see the cycling for free.

On that basis, I reckon it's worth retaining as a reward for the citizens of the bid city who can actually get to see something for the billions of dollars worth of debt they'll be paying off for the decades afterwards...

 

[Cobber]

Golf is DEFINITELY a sport and deserves to be in the olympics more than a lot of other sports that are already there.

 

[ladyvader]

I would rather watch paint dry than watch golf.

I think IOC is POed at the USOC, so they've taken to two sports that are mostly US sports and deleted them from the Olympics. I understand in a way about baseball because the best players are not there. MLB won't do what NHL does and take a two week break for the Olympics. But the IOC seems to lump softball and baseball together, so softball suffers. I also think because the US DOMINATES softball is another reason they dumped it. If you think about that for their reason, then why was basketball still a sport? The US dominated that for a long time before the rest of the world caught up.

 

[pedaling squares]

I don't golf, but I recognize the skill and commitment required to be good at it. It certainly is a sport. It is also worthy of inclusion in the Olympics, as it is played and/or followed by many millions of people across much of the globe.

It doesn't matter that you can have a belly and play golf well. Many weightlifters have bellies too. Cardiovascular fitness isn't as important as in cycling, but timing, coordination, and tactical nous are required to excel at golf. Look at it the other way around, in many sports cyclists would be seen as skinny dweebs. Cycling is no less of a sport simply because the athletes barely have the arm strength to lift a fork to their mouths.

 

[usedtobefast]

golf a sport? i am still laughing at the idea. and i played golf in school. it does take skill. so does billiards.