I hate it. Well maybe not hate but short of its ability to enrich otherwise also ran athletes I see no real purpose or practicality to it. Attacking a little white ball with a menacing metal stick that has a bulb on the end of it. I listened carefully as the other engineers in the cafeteria talked about their $700.00 hybrid drivers, whatever those are, sounds more like androgynous automobilia than it does sports. Don't get me wrong, these are bright and talented people but geez the idea that room full of excellent minds could be so absorbed in something so mundane in the face of national crises and world distress just astonishes me. I guess I need to get out more but then again the whole idea of working in the first place is to support family, at least for me.

" Some days I can hit it 300 yards with the hybrid and then on other days I just can't get it right "

" I told my girlfriend that I'm not a good enough player to know the difference between a $700.00 club and a $100.00 club but she bought me the expensive one anyway"

" I've played all over the world, where I go my clubs go "

" At $26.00 per nine holes that place is a bargain ! "

" Last year I spent over three grand on my clubs ! "

And so forth. I was nearly bored to tears before I left the coffee room and found that I was unable to engage anyone in any kind of serious conversation about world economics, the war in Iraq or even the current state of hydrocarbon based transportation as opposed to Alternative energy based transportation, although many of these guys do work on that stuff.

Jocks...they're everywhere.

jo

I have to say I just don't fukin' get it either. Cannot comprehend why someone would want to do it for free, let alone pay a fortune in clubs, balls, lessons, silly clothes, green fees, memberships for the opportunity.

And any "sport" that is so often played by fat drunk old men hardly is deserving of the name sport.

Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports. . . all others are games -- Hemingway

I have been an athlete all my life. At one time or another, I have played football, basketball, baseball, tennis, surfing, skiing, softball, fast-pitch softball, volleyball, racketball, waterpolo, swimming, running, rock climbing, water skiing, snow skiing, ice skating, darts, pool, ping pong, shuffleboard and probably a ton more that I cannot remember. In all these years, I have never played a harder sport to master than golf. I played 7 times last week on my vacation and will play again tomorrow. If you are really an athlete and not just some ho-daddy, give it a serious try. I bet you will get hooked.

Like my mountain climbing friends say about their mountains; they are never conquered - there are just some days they can be climbed.

If you desire to take your golf to another level, you should forget any idea of mastering the game. Tiger Woods doesn't even do that - but he does, with scary frequency, master his abilities.

z

Golf "took off" as a sport becaue it is the perfect metaphorical expression of the Calvinist Presbyterianism which found its widest acceptance in the same culture (Scotland.)

The whole idea of getting your handicap down is proving you're one of the elect.

I understand that lots of people like it, but I still don't get it. And yes, I have tried it a few times.

No doubt at all it takes enormous levels of talent and skill to master, but I still have a hard time taking seriously any sport that does not require breaking a sweat (and that carries no risk of serious bodily injury!)

ask Tiger Woods, currently in rehab after his fourth knee surgery about injury.

As far as taking it seriously as a sport, consider this; when I played in school, our golf team played the other teams each year in a sort of grudge match. major sport athletes used to look down on the golfers.

In every instance, our golf team could give them all a good game...baseball, football (flag) and basketball and tennis. We got a handicap of course, like four outs an inning, or got spotted points...but we could make a game of it.

Because while we weren't exceptional athletes in any one area, we kept in top shape, were unusually coordinted and also had exceptional mental conditioning and were used to focusing over long periods of competition.

Then we took them out on the golf course and spent the entire afternoon humiliating them to the point where fists would almost fly.

Golf, my friend, is a sport.

z

Some people have a deep-seated need to be really good at anything in which they engage. These people don't like golf.

Humbling. Repeatedly.

Of course, there's nothing more enthralling than one's own golf stories. And there's nothing more tedious than the golf stories of others.

I also see room for an interpretation of golf as an overt expression of lingering closeted Catholicism, particularly of teh self-flagellatory variety. It takes a certain masochistic mindset to truly enjoy golf that I think perhaps goes beyond mere asceticism of the Presbytesbian sort.

Interesting, Sawbones!

Lizzie's sister Mary didn't go under the axe for bein better lookin, event though it's said she was. So there is some historical support for your assertion.

Maybe we should ask some CompRel prof at Yale about this.

You shouldn't find their response unusual, although I can understand your frustration. When confronted with issues that are beyond the direct influence of the individual, the instinct to hide in the mundane is a pretty common one. The fact that golf happens to be a common interest they share, and one that lends itself to constant self-examination and improvement, accounts for their ability to talk about it to the point where you begin to slip into a coma.

I can't really explain why golf is endlessly interesting to some (I'm with Wooley, I would play every day and twice on Sunday if I could) but utterly boring to others. I took my wife to the driving range once, and it took us one session to establish that she's too much of a perfectionist ever to set foot on a golf course again.

Let Tiger watch this and then tell me how he risks injury:

MotoGP

The Hermonator!

Golf is not for the person who wants to play well early on. Its like fly fishing. Its not for everyone.

Golf is a disease. One cannot catch it until one plays it at least once. All it takes is that one perfect drive and you are hooked. It does not matter if you top the ball and it dribbles 50 feet on the next nine drives, you know you can dive it and it makes you want to play all that much more to experience that great shot.

There is also the comradarie of your friends out on the back nine as you tee off, comparing shots, admiring a beautiful course and knocking back an icey cold Budweiser. Its quiet, few courses ever allow radios or other distracting noises, usually nice weather (a few die hards play in the rain, not me)and it provides an atmosphere very conducive to discussing important issues of busness and politics.

But it is expensive, at least for working class folks. I have never agreed with these special days where the disadvantaged youth were allowed to play free for one lousy day. All it does is rub their noses into a wonderful pastime that they will never be able to afford to experience again. From the equipment, to greens fees, lost balls and practice at a range one can easily spend 1000 dollars plus to play just a few games a year. That puts the poor and a huge number of working folks out of Golf.

Try Golf sometime, because everyone nees to get away from the world every now and then and it is a great equalizer in both politics and business. You don't have to look like hulk hogan to hit the ball well, its not like baseball,you just need good concentration skills.

considering the ego wars that take place on the greens I find that not only plausible but entirely believable.

Thanks.