Yesterday I was watching TV and I turned to a baseball game being broadcast from Yankee Stadium. 55,000 people were screaming at the top of their lungs, hundreds of camera flashcubes were popping in a continuous blur of light, and at the plate a batter tried to hit a baseball coming at him at 98 mph. Then I switched channels to a gymnastics meet, one of those big ones where several events are going on simultaneously. People were yelling, announcements were blaring over the loudspeakers, people were coming and going in a never-ending stream, and a little wisp of a teenage girl was running across the floor, hurling herself four feet in the air, and landing on a 4-inch wide beam where she then proceded to do somersaults, backbends, etc. I was reminded of skating tournaments where a man before a huge, noisy crowd glidesrapidly across the ice and throws his partner up in the air where she twists and turns several times before falling back into his arms after which they continue on their skates across the ice. And then I turned to a golf tournament. A grown man was trying to hit a few feet a little ball that was lying motionless in the grass. After taking a few minutes to analyze the situation and decide how he wanted to hit the ball, he got ready to swing and then stopped in a rage and stared at a man 100 feet away who had whispered something to his companion. Then he waited until there was absolute silence, reanalyzed the situation, and finally hit the ball. Why??? Why does a a golfer need absolute silence to hit a ball just lying there in the grass when those other athletes can perform far more dangerous, difficult tasks in the center of a storm of noise, light, and movement?
A corollary I’ve wondered about:
If unchecked noise were allowed at golf tournaments, would the composition of the PGA’s elite change? That is, would guys like Tiger Woods, Vijay, Ernie Els, etc. just be at best be a club pro somewhere wondering what might have been?
The style of your post reminds me of the opening chapter of Don DeLillo’s Underworld, and I mean that as a compliment.
Snooker is another sport where silence when the player is making a shot is enforced. I don’t understand this phenomenon either.
I had to check to what forum this was in before I replied…
My take on it is that you can expect silence from a golf crowd, but not from a baseball crowd. Can you imaginie if a pitcher asked the crowd to please be quiet?
“Excuse me, I’m really trying to concentrate.”
As a golfer, though not really a good one, I can say that from my point of view noise in and of itself is no problem. It’s the timing of noise that would be a problem, and even at that not a huge one. A sudden noise during a backswing, or just when the clubhead starts to come down could alter a swing. Truth is, I kind of prefer some background noise, all that quiet makes me nervous.
I’ve also wondered if it is a rule or a courtesy at events like NBA games or NHL games to only play music while the clock is not running?
In most sports, actions are dictated by some outside event or a pre-planned rhythm. In baseball, the batter has to hit the pitch as it comes. Skaters and gymnasts, once they start their routine, have a rhythm and a sequence of one move into the next. I always figured the difference with golf (and snooker too, I guess) was that the player can take his time. Hit it, don’t hit it; whenever you’re ready. And I think the psychology of that makes a difference.
I’ve been to the Open a couple of times (St Andrews, both times), and it’s not particularly quiet with thirty thousand people milling about, the helicopters and jets, the seagulls. But I can guess a sharp call at the wrong, crucial moment would be off-putting.
That makes a lot of sense, Robot Arm. On the other side of the psychological coin, in football (both rugby and soccer), the intensity of the crowd seems to make a hell of a difference - often you can see a feedback between the players and the crowd - a straightening of the backs and once more into the breach…
I have this problem with bowling in a major way. Golf is a sport where a certain amount of quiet is always expected out of courtesy for others on the course (as far as I understand it; I’ve never played the game). Bowling is a completely different animal, however.
Professional bowlers honed their skilled and achieved the level they reach by growing up in bowling alleys. They bowl in leagues full of raucus competitors who are drinking and/or generally being loudly enthusiastic. Then they go practice in centers where they are surrounded by amateur bowlers who don’t understand bowling courtesy, screaming children who run across the lanes, random announcements over the PA system, and numerous other distractions.
If these professional bowlers can learn to be at their best under such conditions, why, then, do they come to expect complete silence and stillness from crowds when they bowl in tournaments? Who fostered that attitude?
Isn’t ‘quiet, please’ one of the most frequently-heard phrases at Wimbledon?
Yup, and given the proximity density of the courts often a futile one.
The reader should feel free to pick one of these, and add the word “other” or “surrounding” in the appropriate place. Thanks.
I often think that about pool (oh, sorry, pocket billiards).
Golf is a game correctly played in relative solitude, just a small group out there in the course, nobody else within 100 yards of you, it’s green and peaceful. I’m sure you can play just fine if there was a consistenly cheering crowd, you can tune that out, like when they have mowers going. But the guy who yells “FORE! LOOKOUT!” on your downswing is going to screw you up bigtime, then laugh his damn head off.
But we aren’t talking about golfers just making sure yahoos don’t “Noonan!” them. These guys go nuts over cameras clicking to the point that cameras and cellphones are banned from tourneys. And they step away if someone moves 20 yards away.
It would seem to me that there might be some happy medium between a World Cup frenzy and a church-like silence.
I’m sure I’m going to get slaughtered for saying this, but I’m really not trying to put down other sports here. However, golf is a game of extreme precision. I’m a bad golfer, but I’ve played enough to have enormous respect for the pros who hit it dead solid perfect nearly every time.
Every golf lie is different. Different distance to the pin, different slope (ball above feet and uphill) for example. More than that, the way the spin is imparted to the ball is critical too. A millimeter or two of outside to in swing is going to cause more slice than acceptable in a tournament where thousands of dollars are on the line per stroke. Just to repeat, the golf swing (of the pro) has to be very, very precise at a micro-level.
In most of the other sports mentioned, things happen at a macro-level or don’t have the same consequences.
Bowling: same regulation lane and pin set up every time. You adjust for spares but you see the same spares a lot. The ball is pretty big too
Baseball: Tough to hit the 98 mph fastball, but you’ve got a pretty broad field to hit it to. And you don’t have to get a hit better than 60% of the time.
Football: You’re really dealing at a macro-level here. Hit the guy with the ball. Or at the most technical level, timing a pass play. Great teamwork, sure, but it doesn’t rely on as much precision IMHO.
Also, it’s not the ambient noise that’s the problem (helicopters, crowd milling about, etc.), but the unexpected noise like a spectator coughing or talking nearby that can really mess you up. When flexing a muscle the wrong way on your downswing can have such dire consequences for your shot, it’s only proper for people to shut up and talk after the shot. Lord knows there’s plenty of downtime to talk to your buddies at a golf tourney.
Finally, golf and tennis, AFAIK, are the only two sports where you only get paid for how you perform in that tournament. Maybe bowling too. I think everybody else has contracts.
I just wish they’d ban those idjits who yell “Get in the hole!” like that’s going to do any good.