Why are “athletes” in these sports afforded silence?
Why can’t I jeer Pete Sampras from the cheap seats?
Are the athletes of other professional sports superior in that they can perform their feats of concentration amidst random shouting and cheering?
I thought it was a tradition because those sports were originally considered to be a “gentleman’s” sport and polite behaviour was required.
Unlike, say, a soccer game, where you can cheer on your team members to your hearts content. Gotta love soccer! 
KO: long time, man. How’s things?
I agree that the silence is a holdover. I think now it’s a matter of tradition and peer pressure. True, at some tennis matches one can be evicted for being loud.
I do find the background cheering to be a major annoyance while watching sports (on TV as well as live), and while I’d rather eat glass than watch golf, I kinda like watching tennis and being able to hear the squeak of the shoes and the thwack of the ball striking the exposed flesh of a poor little ball boy . . .
But then, I occasionally pray for crowd noise to drown out the @&*!% grunting from some players (ok, mainly Monica).
It’s always amazed me that a baseball player (and these men aren’t considered athletes by many) can hit a 90mph slider with 30,000 people screaming at him, but Tiger Woods freaks out if someone’s talking on a cell phone 50 feet away from him when he tees off.
Congrats on your first post MammaJamma!
As was mentioned earlier, tennis and golf used to be “country club” sports, played and watched almost exclusively by the upper classes. Those were people who, it was assumed, knew and adhered to certain rules of etiquette and good sportsmanship.
Today, golf and tennis are far more popular than they used to be, and have attracted crowds from all walks of life. No longer are the spectators at the Masters a bunch of rich white patricians who will stay silent, and clap politely now and again. Now, you’ve got guys who behave at country clubs the way they would in the bleachers at Wrigley Field.
Now, these loud, racous uncouth fans annoy many “traditionalist” golfers and tennis pros. On the other hand, its precisely this influx of new fans that has led to the HUGE purses golfers and tennis stars are earning.
SO, traditionalists have to ask themselves: do I REALLY Want to go back to the old days, playing before a few dozen rich white folks, and earning tiny purses? Or will I take the big paychecks, and learn to live with the noise.
This question was covered in General Questions last month.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15660
As a tennis player, I think one of the reasons is that the players need to hear the sound of the ball coming off the racquet, as it is possible to tell what kind of spin is being used and how hard the ball is hit by the sound it makes.
Also the players need to hear the calls the line judges make as soon as they make them.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the requirement of silence and civility at a golf tournament. There’s also a dress code generally as well.
Says who? On a late night talk show recently this very topic was discussed and funny stories recounted (and now I wish I had paid better attention so I could remember who was telling the stories). One guest told of seeing his first NBA game as a new celebrity with seats right on the hard wood. He said the players were so close he could touch them. He proceeded to shout his usual basketball fan mantra like he always did when he was back in the cheap seats: NO don’t pass…Shoot it! Shoot it!! until Shaq turned around and said, “I know how to play the game TV boy”. It seems NBA players are also annoyed by loud fans when those fans are close enough and loud enough to overcome the general din of the crowd. Another guest told of playing in a celebrity pro-am golf tournament with Michael Jordan and various golf stars. When two teenagers in the crowd were yelling, “Michael, Michael” one of the golf pros told them to shut up and Jordan told the golf pro, “Hey, if I can shoot foul shots with 30,000 screaming fans you can sink a putt with 2 kids yelling.”
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Says the people who own the courses and run the game. I wouldn’t scream at the Dallas Symphony and put a lighter into the air for an encore. Proper etiquette depends on the location and the situation. THat’s just the way it goes.
Marc
What I don’t understand is why do golf announcers from the studio of a televised tournament whisper while someone is making a shot. Are the golfer’s ears that sensitive that they can hear them from the clubhouse? It got kind of ridiculous when Sergio Garcia made one of the most famous shots in recent memory, the around-the-tree to the green during the PGA last year. Here were the announcers whispering:
“It seems obvious that Sergio will have to lay it up.”
“I agree. Wait a minute, wait…can you see what club he is using?”
“Oh my. Ladies and gentlemen, I think he is going for it.”
The juxtaposition of the dramatic circumstances of the shot (Sergio was making a charge at Tiger Woods) with their whispering/snickering about the shot he was about to make was very funny.
I can’t speak for tennis, but the reason golf is so quiet is that one becomes accustomed to it. Consistent, ambient noise (like a bunch of people talking, or leaves rustling) isn’t a problem, but inconsistent, unpredictable noise can be very distracting. Golf, when not in tournament play, is usually played in such solitary conditions that it’s impossible to get that consistent ambient noise going, so it’s proper etiquette to shut the hell up and not bother your playing partner while he’s taking a shot. For the most part, the only people who go to golf tournaments are peole who golf, so they’re used to being quiet while someone is taking a shot. Similarly, the players (who play most of their rounds like the rest of us: in silence) are used to people observing golf etiquette, and a break in that can be very distracting.
Also, have you noticed that the audience is always quiet during sports involving individuals, but always rowdy in sports w/ teams? (Doubles tennis doesn’t count.) This could help to explain why tennis is silent, too.
Great point, Varlos. Have any of you actually played golf and had someone yell something right in the middle of your backswing? You take your eye off the ball for just a split second, pull your swing and oops the ball is 85 yards right into the treeline. The solitary nature of single person sports is what makes it so hard to take quick distractions. There’s not enough going on for a constant cheer during golf…if there was, I doubt it’d be a problem. I think most tennis players wouldn’t have a problem with the crowd getting noisy as a poing wore on either…as long as the whole crowd is doing it, and not some joker screaming “MISS!!!” right when a player tries to hit the ball…the silence and concentration is really only needed on the serve. In team sports, and things that don’t require carefully planned and executed shots (like a golf shot or a tennis serve), the crowd just serves to pump you up and get you going…it’s great. In those intense solitary moments in golf and tennis, though, it just rattles your nerves and causes you to screw up.
Jman
…So that John McEnroe had an excuse for why he screwed up?