“It’s a long day out in the sun, driving around in a golf cart, drinking a few beers with other retired, old men.” This is what people who claim golf is just an “activity” will say. But golf isn’t just an activity — it’s a sport, as anyone who has tried to play 18 holes will tell you.
A sport, as defined by Oxford English Dictionary, is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill.” Golf fits all these requirements. This sport does not just include spending a day in the sun on the course. Competitive golfers, for example, are not allowed to drive in a golf cart and walk about five miles every 18 holes, according to the World Golf Foundation. That’s a lot of walking.
Walking is not the only reason golf is a sport. Exceptional hand eye coordination is required to successfully hit a golf ball far and straight. Golfers must hit a small ball — measuring only 1.68 inch diameter and just under 1.62 ounces in weight — over 300 yards into a hole only two-and-a-half times its size in just three-to-five strokes. This challenge is made more difficult by a variety of obstacles such as trees, rough, sand bunkers, and water.
Golf isn’t just physically challenging, players also participate in a mental game. A linksman must also understand the different uses of each club. “Do I use a nine or seven iron here? Do I go with a pitching or sand wedge on this shot?” The wrong choice of club can be the difference between a birdie or bogey. These mental challenges emphasize the pressure of each golf shot, which is similar to the play by play pressure present in other sports, such as basketball and football.
Like other sports, golf also generates a competitive — sometimes heated — atmosphere. The men of the gentlemen’s sport do not always live up to the name. Rivalries, such as the one between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeu, sometimes get so out of hand the PGA must step in. What started out as complaints from Koepka about DeChambeu’s slow pace of play turned into DeChambeu body-shaming Koepka on Twitch and Koepka’s fans heckling DeChambeu in return.
America’s love for golf was revived by players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who changed the idea of golf being for old men to a young, competitive, lively sport. Fans find golf so entertaining that the sport generates more than $84 billion dollars in revenue just in the U.S. every year, according to Forbes.
Golf isn’t simply a nice day out in the sun. By insinuating that less serious versions of golf disqualify it from sport status, it would be similar to saying pick-up basketball games make basketball less of a sport. The pressure, competitiveness, and unmatched skill of golf and its athletes prove it is a sport. If you don’t believe golf is a sport, try hitting par on a dogleg left par-5 in the heat of competition.
