Ah, common misconceptions about golf. Iâve been wanting to make a post about this for a while in general, so why not now since I got reminded of it? Itâs a long post though so get it after the break so I donât stretch your feed to next week:
Itâs definitely a sport and WAY harder than a lot think it is. Likely the hardest sport to get good at actually. Like, if you watch the people on TV playing, they make it look easy. But when you are trying it yourself, suddenly trying to get the ball in the 4.25 inch circumference hole in the fewest strokes possible from hundreds of yards out ends up seeming like a monumental task because it is. Mind you anyone can hit the ball in the hole, eventually, lol! So itâs technically accessible to all. But getting par or under par has only been accomplished by a extremely low amount of people in any given time.
Some may say âWell, just because itâs hard doesnât make it a sport!â. But it fits the definitions perfectly: https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/187476 People just tend to think itâs not one because itâs a solo game even though there are a ton of sports that people wouldnât think twice about being a sport that are solo like Skiing, cycling and running or because they think itâs not athletic. But to hit the ball 300+ yards like the pros requires months, if not years of strength, flexibility and speed training. So much so that the average distance you can expect regular players to drive is around 225 yards. Iâve also heard the old stereotype about golfers being these obese people compared to athletes in other sports that people wouldnât bat an eye at like Gridiron football. But you will find WAY less pro golfers that are overweight compared to football players. XD I mean... I can make all sorts of false claims that donât matter much in the grand scheme of the sports either that flip around the stereotypes too. Like this: With golf pros you are walking 6+ miles (pros are not allowed to use a cart) over hilly terrain across 5-6 hours (more on that in the cost section) to examine where youâre hitting to for a ton of exercise, but in football itâs all flat and they only are active for about 17 minutes with the rest being loitering for replays/time drains/commercials. But we all know that football players train hard to be able to handle their bulk to hold off other players donât we? :P Hence why I think a lot of knocking of various sports come down to misunderstanding more than anything.
To get accurate enough to keep your ball in play/out of trouble, especially if you hit farther, requires lots of refinement as even being a degree off or creating too much sidespin matters when the ball gets hundreds of yards away. Assuming you have no sidespin and are that mere 1 degree off, that is 5.2 feet for 100 yards. Go up to 300 yards and suddenly you are 15.6 feet off line, making longer hits more of a risk reward than many think. Thereâs also stuff to factor in like wind which can throw your shots even more off track. Even careful shots around the green and putting to get close to the hole thereâs a lot of area you can miss at and a lot of ways to do so from bad lies to slopes. In fact, it is so hard to play golf well that even the best flub at times. Many say itâs maddening actually. Hereâs a compilation of pro mishits off of the tee, the easiest spot to hit a ball at because itâs the flattest spot and you can tee the ball to where you feel comfortable off the ground:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFHXJR2R4o
So basically whenever I see people say âX-Sport isnât a sportâ, itâs largely because they just donât understand it or are trying to discredit it.
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Golf is also cheaper to get into than a lot think. It âusedâ to be a sport for the rich elitist snobs in the old days which it had difficulties shaking to this day. But you can find local courses to play at like $20-$30/round or less if you search around. Thatâs around 5-6 hours of play too. Compare that to going see a movie (that a lot consider to be a regular personâs leisure time) which is around $10 for 1.5 hours average and you are actually getting more bang for your buck. There are even golf courses in the world that are free to play, but they are far and few:
https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/articles/free-golf-courses
Just about all courses have a free practice green/area to try things out though, so anyone can get a putter or wedge with a few balls (many free or dirt cheap too and you can even find lost balls while playing golf.) and have at it to see just how difficult even the short shots are. You can even rent clubs at many courses to try things out at first. Heck, even mini-golf can be really difficult and youâre only putting.
Getting golf equipment is way cheaper than a lot think too. You can find sets of used clubs and bags being given away or dirt cheap (People often get caught up in the olâ âNew tech will fix my issues!â like with any sport and drop their old stuff for new ones when itâs actually a skill issue.) if you look around (Craigâs list, Ebay, Garage Sales, Play It Again Sports, etc...) and are willing to give them a cleaning. I mean sure if you go for the latest just-released stuff, you are forking out hundreds per club. But you donât need to as the rules of the game have limited equipment performance for years like any other sport. So new stuff doesnât even perform much better than older stuff, if at all as lots of testing found. Thus itâs more about how much time and money people want to put into it like any sport or hobby.
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As a bonus that I seen in the reblogs about it being apparently environmentally bad, thatâs also inaccurate:Â https://www.golfwrx.com/201071/study-golf-courses-actually-arent-bad-for-the-environment/ Golf courses existing have provided wildlife refuge by keeping forests and land that would otherwise be cut down and leveled for endless parking lots and carbon-emitting factories/businesses. People can point out the maintenance of courses with mowers and such having carbon emissions too of course, but itâs FAR less than allowing them to be clear-cut and leveled for other businesses and parking (You may have heard of the phrase âconcrete jungleâ before.). Which shady corporations will be fighting over to get if they arenât already some existing business or protected area. Even then they will sometimes try to get it to destroy it for their own gain anyway. Some also think courses use a lot of water, but nope. Many have their own wells and have mastered grass maintenance to know exactly how much to use, if any. Like in drought times, they may not even water at all and people just play them dormant-brown because the grass handily doesnât grow much, if at all, reducing maintenance even more. Hereâs photo of play on a dormant course as an example:
Article source which has the image:
https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2021/05/14/how-tall-is-golf-flagstick-what-is-minimum-recommended-height-110242/
Itâs also worth noting that as big as golf courses âseemâ, they are a mere pockmark out of the entire planetâs surface area and thus even if you got rid of all golf courses, they wouldnât make a dent in where the real issues are: https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters
...and golf courses are even aiming to be more environmentally friendly than they already were: https://www.usga.org/course-care/turfgrass-and-environmental-research/research-updates/reducing-carbon-footprint-of-golf-courses.html Which if you think about it, makes perfect sense âtoâ do because the less waste you have, the more money you save. But the problem is that most other corporations are so behind the times that they donât see it. Thus big oil (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/18/the-forgotten-oil-ads-that-told-us-climate-change-was-nothing) and auto (https://medium.com/the-pub/exorcising-the-propaganda-of-big-auto-3d3a88bf4b73) continues to push propaganda which has slowed progress to dangerous levels that we may not be able to fix in time.
So when people are complaining about carbon emissions of golf, the focus is sadly directed at one of the lowest impact things on the planet. So if you want to start somewhere, focus on cars as they are abysmal and focus on corporations as they are are even worse (Itâll take regulation before companies change) yet they put all the blame on others just like a narcissist would to try and get others to believe oil is A-OK and redirect the blame. Even electric cars fail because the corporations behind electricity are using oil resourses to make them, as is electricity use in general because electric companies refuse to switch to hydro, wind, solar or other renewables in favor of oil to provide the power as well, which in turn costs them more money that they could be saving as well:Â https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-23/building-new-renewables-cheaper-than-running-fossil-fuel-plants
Hence the part of them being incredibly behind the times as they are hurting their own bottom lines too.
Now as a result, if everything âdidâ switch to all electric at once, the infrastructure couldnât support it as there isnât enough renewables set up already despite them having years to do it. Itâs a huge mess they created all while they are telling us to use less heat and electricity to make it seem like we use too much. Funny how that works right? ;)
But even if people still want to claim all the environmental impacts of fossil fuels is but mere fiction, thereâs one thing that remains well known and agreed on: Fossil fuels will run out eventually so we will have to transition to something else. Better sooner than later before we have to rush. Especially since other forms of energy are already more reliable. For instance: If you have not failed to start a gas lawnmower (or some other gas thing like a trimmer, chainsaw, etc...) for a while (sometimes days at a time) because the engine flooded, something clogged or it was too cold (which can make it shut off) AND needed to wait a while for it to warm up, I would be very surprised, lol! Not that electric always works either of course as nothing is perfect, but letâs just say that if a large branch cracks off on the yard due to a storm and I had to pick between our gas chainsaw or electric chainsaw to get it chopped up to dispose of it quickly because it was blocking something, Iâm pulling out the outdoor extension cords. XD
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Thatâs not the only field corporations spread lies about themselves ruining either. Like did you know that the plastic problem was created by corporations and NOT the people? Link: https://grist.org/accountability/maine-oregon-laws-shift-responsibility-for-recycling-plastic-waste-to-companies/
They just try and put the blame on others by saying âOh, you just arenât recycling! This is your fault! We created a nice system for reusing plastics and you are the ones failing the planet by not recycling!â and such when secretly most plastics made are not recycleable or are incredibly difficult to do so which ups the costs to absurd levels, including plastics that are labeled as such. So most stuff we think we can ârecycleâ, even if we are putting the right numbers in the bin (check your local regulations), gets chucked into the landfills anyway: https://ipen.org/news/truth-behind-plastic-curtain-most-plastic-not-recyclable Mind you that you still should recycle as it helps a bit, itâs not difficult to do so and things add up. But my point is that us mere customers arenât the issue, we just have no other choice because most things are packaged with plastic instead of stuff like cardboard or glass. Mind you plastic has itâs uses for some things because itâs designed to be incredibly durable and versatile, though it doesnât need to be involved with anywhere close to as many things as it is in. But this is probably getting too off track at this point so maybe I should save this for another post. :P
Thanks for reading and have a good one!
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