Golf is a game of the mind, I personally love it, but i don’t talk about it because i only play with myself… even if i’m on the course with other poeple. I’m always trying to improve myself… and i don’t care about anyone elses game. The other people are only there to make it fun. So this twat at work, if he was truely into the game should shut up and remember what the game is really about.
Thanks for sticking to the post SS…as you can probably tell, this is one of the “on” days…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Maureen *
Actually, you said : “I don’t see what trespassing on private land has to do with anything. If you think golf courses use to much land, fine. Get some friends together, buy the land, and use it for housing. Hmmm…isn’t Central Park…” ad nauseum. Which infers Central Park to be privately held. Nothing about "a bunch of land being used recreationally."
I thought that the “people walking around and enjoying the outdoors” part implied people using land recreationally. Sorry if it was too subtle. And since you had mentioned the Masters, held at a private club, I was referring to buying up some privately held land if you were unhappy with land usage in America. Again, I apologize for the transition from one topic to another.
**As for my making a valid point: K. I started this thread asking for information on a certain subject: Obnoxious arrogant jerks who seem to gravitate to golf. **
And you got your answer LONG ago. Not all golfers are arrogant jerks.
**
Your overblown self righteous justifications point me toward believing that you fit that category quite nicely. **
Justifications? Of what? That people have the right to play a game that they enjoy? :rolleyes: Sheesh.
**
How many posters here are actually offended by what I said regarding agreeing with George Carlin’s assertions to golf? Aside from Nineiron, that is? **
Nope, I never made any reference to George Carlin’s bit, but whatever. I’m not nearly as rich as George Carlin, but I’m the rich (earning less than $30,000 at full time job) guy, right?
my word, nineiron. Let me guess what you teach. Hmmmm… English, perhaps? Elementary School English would be my guess, if you always get this huffy when anyone disagrees with you, I find it difficult to believe you would teach a subject that actually encourages students to have their own opinion. Unclench, lad. This is supposed to be FUN. You remember that stuff, yeah?
Done with trying to argue her long-ago defeated argument, she resorts to personal attacks on a person she’s never met.
Game over.
(Hey, that ** was ** fun!)
Thanks, Lightningtool, BF, MeanJoe! Hit 'em straight!
heeheeheehee. Yes, dear. Get your parting shot. Very adult of you. Um, my position isn’t a game to me. But if it makes you feel better to think you actually “won” anything on an opinion board, Okay. You go.
I would have actually fallen down laughing. Golf is either funny or bad for your health.
When people are really bad it’s kind of fun to watch, like auto racing. “OH SHIT, that’s got house written all over it!” “That might make the street!” CRASH TINKLE “DUDE, he got a WINDOW!” Much hilarity ensues
Maureen, in some places there are cheap courses anyone can play. Around here in the summer, with a collared shirt–no cut-offs, swim suits, tank tops, jeans, or personal coolers*–you can play for around 20 bucks at some nice courses.
*I swear every course has that listed on the scorecard somewhere.
Best of all, junior golfers play for practically nothing during the summer. I used to pay nothing for practice rounds before junior tournaments that cost very little also. It’s a good deal for the course during the slower periods. They make money on gatorade and hot dogs.
OK, Maureen,
I’m female and I golf. I am pretty well off and actually do belong to a country club. I have new expensive clubs (which my husband gave me for my birthday, the woods came from Christmas), and a selection of ugly golf skirts, with matching cute little collared shirts and ugly spiked shoes.
I golf with the guys from work on a league. I’m one of four out of sixteen people playing with expensive clubs - almost everyone plays second hand clubs, wears tennis shoes, and hacks with the free balls one of our league members picks up from the golf course. Many of our league members are minorities.
My club has black, Jewish, Asian and female members. Wouldn’t have joined it if it didn’t. Back in the day, when life was more segregated, it was a primarily Jewish club. Tiger and Vijay learned to play somewhere - maybe public course, but somehow I doubt it. It isn’t like Tiger showed up at Q school to play his first round ever.
My uncle - a construction worker - is a scratch golfer. Another uncle was a scratch golfer (he’s into his late 60s now and his game has fallen off) - and learned to play on public courses. He grew up very poor in some of the worst neighborhoods of Minneapolis - but that didn’t stop him from learning to golf. I’ve played with all types of people - rich people, poor people, black people, white people.
I used to live in South Minneapolis, on the edge of a rough neighborhood and about 1/2 a mile away from a nice public course (Hiawatha, if Nurse Carmen is still reading this thread). We’d play it a couple times a year, and we’d watch inner city black kids in their Nikes bike in with their clubs on their backs. How much time have you spent on a golf course to make the assertion that this doesn’t happen? You aren’t going to see this if your entire exposure to golf is the coverage of the PGA tour, but I’ll assure you from experience that it happens - and probably with a frequency that would surprise you.
Land use. This is perhaps your most on target criticism of the game. Golf courses use a lot of land. And they’ve traditionally used a lot of chemicals to keep the courses in shape. But you could make the same complaint about strip malls - who just pave over the green. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, why should they be allowed to build a huge building and pave over green space when that land could be used for housing, or a nice nine hole course. A case can be made that golf courses reserve green space in cities and suburbs that would have otherwise become paved over. Cities need green space. Parks, golf courses, cemetaries, all provide this fuction.
Augusta - Augusta is a private club - as such, they may do as they wish - it would be my desire that they not be such jerks about their policies. (Hootie has proved himself to be an ass) The VAST majority of golf clubs admit women and minorities as members. Eventually, Augusta will as well. What a lot of people don’t realize is what Augustas membership is made up of. There aren’t many members. Many of them are old. Most of them are conservative Southern gentlemen. Golf clubs are the exception in the sport anyway - most people can’t afford the club membership fees and play public or semi-private (owned by a private person, but you don’t need to be a member to play) courses. Your first assertation was that women couldn’t play - this is wrong. In fact, it is a wrong assertation that they can’t be members - AFAIK, there is nothing in the Augusta bylaws that would prevent a woman member. It is a correct assertation that there are no women members.
(A complete aside, I am in a woman’s bookclub. If we had bylaws, it would say that men older than three are not permitted to attend except by special invitation. There is, and I’m a NOW card carrying feminist, IMO, a need in society for just women to get together and just men to do the same. And if a bunch of rich white southern guys want to have a golf club rather than a book club, well - if I had a zillion dollars, my women’s book club might be a women’s golf club).
I’d really encourage you to rent some clubs, go to a public course, and have your stereotypes shattered - all you are doing here is convincing us that you have an opinion about something you aren’t qualified to have an opinion about.
Note to self: Inform Dad that his concrete-stained jeans and tee shirts are no longer acceptable when piddling around on the public course with the guys. Must remember to buy plaid pants for Father’s Day, and throw in new job. Am sure lifetime of construction experience will be useful in new career as neurosurgeon. Perhaps by Christmas can save enough to buy father swanky new friends to replace other construction workers.
The quality of a golfer’s game is usually inversely proportional to the amount of unsolicited advice given.
Most of us just play golf for fun. Most people, even people like me who suck, will get off one great shot per round and think to themselves, “Gosh, I can go back out and do this again, even better.”
Case in point, went out on a par 3 course and got a hole-in-one (136 yard hole). Went out to play a long course the next weekend. First tee, drove the ball 250 yards dead center down the fairway. Made an 8 on that hole and played 9 holes in 65.
As I posted before, he who really loves the game plays against
only himself, and thus would have no one to brag to.
You know, it’s OK to concede to [b[nineiron**, who is quite qualified to debate this topic, as he/she has actual first-hand knowledge of the sport in question.
You can be poor and play golf. You can wear whatever you darn well please on some courses, and the ones you can’t, well, by paying dues, you are helping to enforce those dress guidelines. Besides, I don’t see an onslaught of golf-wear ads targeted to rich guys, or to any guys, for that matter.
Sure, jerks play golf. They also go to the grocery store, sit in front of you at the movies, and stand behind you at the ATM.
Golf is, sorry to say, just as valid a pastime as any other sport.
Believe it, or go get started on the
“Are all strippers sluts?”
and
“Do all Southerners chew tobacco?”
OPs.
Sheesh!
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen…
I was 4 years old when I picked up my first club (my mom’s putter) and followed my mom putting the ball from to tee to hole, every hole until I was too tired. My mom was a divorcee at the time, working as a buyer for Kaiser Steel in Eagle Mountain, California (desolate midway point in the low desert between Indio and Blythe, California). Dirt poor and mother of two, our options for recreation was a bowling alley, an ice cream truck and the Tamarisk golf course (about 10 miles away). My brother and I followed mom around on the course, using her putters to hit a ball about 100 times to get it to each hole. Summers were a killer until about 7pm and mom would remind us to look out for rattlers in every hole before pulling your ball out. No braggarts, no plaids, no exclusivity, no sexism, no rich folk, no expensive clubs were duly noted in those times.
As soon as I learned to drive, I grabbed those same old clubs of ours and went golfing again, in tennis shoes, without gloves and about $10 to go golfing with my friends, so we can sneak some beer drinking in. Every time we went, we had a blast, and continued to do this again and again throughout the years. Again, no braggarts, no plaids, no exclusivity, no sexism, no rich folk, no expensive clubs were duly noted in those times.
I worked my way through college and made a lot of friends at a Price Club that I worked at. We usually had the morning shift from 6am to 2:30 pm and went straight over to the local muni about a mile away and golfed till sunset on $12. More beer, more jokes, slightly better golf than previous years (breaking 100 on occasion) and more fun. Oh, did I mention what I saw there? That’s right…no braggarts, no plaids, no exclusivity, no sexism, no rich folk, no expensive clubs were duly noted in those times.
Nowadays, I barely have any time to play except with my stepfather on his birthday and Fathers Day and an occasional charity tournament. I take my 15 year old along too and he loves to play as well, except he’s not allowed to have the beer yet. Between the three of us, there is no braggarts, no plaids, no exclusivity, no sexism, no rich folk, and certainly no expensive clubs that are duly noted in these times.
Some families fish, some hunt, some hike, and some golf together. These are great places to bond with friends and family, so if you feel that golf is a waste of space that can be used for housing, then we should also drain the lakes, level the forests and mountains as well, since these places do the same thing for people as a golf course; it gets friends and family together for recreation and bonding. It’s just a little easier and quicker to get to.
Don’t be too harsh on nineiron, he said everything that I can relate to. Find a friend or relative who loves golf and go out with them once. You don’t have to play every hole, but go out there and hit a few shots and chat away and catch up with them, that’s where the fun is. I think that’s the whole point you’re missing. Oh, and beer is optional…
Now that’s a lenient golf course!
rimshot
[sub]I’m so sorry superstar and to all who read this bit of juvenile humour, but it really did make me giggle. [/sub]
Ahem
Now, on to more serious matters. I love to golf. I’m a student, so naturally I’m dirt poor. Luckily, there are many courses where I live that are cheap to play at. Heck, I don’t even own clubs, I just borrow my Dad’s. I have never run into any authoritarian dress code, outside of the no shirts, no shoes type rules. As for skill, I’m a couple of levels below major suck, just above pure suck. I’m bad, but I have fun. I look at it as a walk in the park with friends, with the added bonus of getting to smack the heck out of a small object, with the added plus of lots of cursing. , good times.
The best shot I ever took was when I was aiming for the green on a par four. I was several fairways away, naturally, but I was lined up perfectly, as was the plan. Well, I delivered a mighty swing, and the ball flew straight and true, just not where I wanted it to. I only caught a bit of the ball with the tip of the club. It shot off at a 90 degree angle from where I intended, and curved backwards. Perhaps not so straight and true, but I claim poetic license. It was a tricky shot, and I have never moved so fast in my life. Why? Well, my friend was off in the distance. Safely out of harms way.
Well, not quite. The ball flew with a force and a fury I have not been able to match since, and shot between her leg and the golf bag holder that she was pushing, with an audible ping. Though not quite as audible as my screams as I ran away with great haste. I didn’t actually hit her, but I came close. As god as my witness, I have no idea how I got the ball to go in that direction. Total fluke.
It was a perfect shot though.