Golf: I don't get the rules of the game!!!!!!!!

[Jim Matthews]

Golf is for people that don't care to walk outdoors with a hunting rifle or fishing rod.

Their prey is more elusive. As an avid tennis player I can honestly say golf is more difficult.
As a former hockey player, I can't honestly say it's a sport anymore than billiards is a sport.

Just look at John Daly and his $20 Million in tour winnings.
Our local scrap metal collector is in better shape.

[paul cottingham]

Sorry, but I don't believe hitting a stationary ball is harder than hitting a moving one, or that it requires more concentration. It just defies logic.

[James Tibbetts]

So how did we get from "explain the rules" to everything is easier than golf? How can you compare team sports to individual ones? OK, it's harder to hit a fast ball than one that is sitting still. But then what? You have maybe 400 feet from foul pole to foul pole to land your shot and your the hero. If you fly out, oh well better luck next time. Lose the game; hey we'll get 'em tomorrow. On the bus back to the hotel and pick up your check. Now for golf. Hit in the woods; take a few extra shots you go home on Friday night. No check. Just the bills for you and your caddy for a few days. Caddy gets paid, you don't.

Can there be any bigger babies or prima donna's than baseball players? A little rain, "Waaa we have to go in; cover the field we might get a little mud on our shoes!!
Gimme a break!!!! Football, soccer, golf pretty much keep going.

[David Ragan]

Golf is for people that don't care to walk outdoors with a hunting rifle or fishing rod.

Their prey is more elusive. As an avid tennis player I can honestly say golf is more difficult.
As a former hockey player, I can't honestly say it's a sport anymore than billiards is a sport.

Just look at John Daly and his $20 Million in tour winnings.
Our local scrap metal collector is in better shape.

Man, that is BRUTAL! (All in good fun.) Would it be a pun to say different strokes........?

[James Tibbetts]

As to the OP's question there are basically 2 rules. Play the course as you find it. Play the balls it lies. Most all the other rules are to address instances of not following the first 2 rules. (And establish the conditions of the contest).

[Mark Blatter]

I always thought the rules of golf should be changed to make it a contact sport. Have roaming linebackers that can strike out of the blue. Have paintball shooters hiding on the course. Make it a real game, with the possibility of real injury. Not simply I pulled a muscle.

That is just my $.02 and I have never played the game in my life. Bowling, now there is a real man's sport.

[Pat Barry]

First off, hitting a golf ball 'accurately' is very difficult because the margin for error is very small. The problem with noise is 1) people learn to golf in peace and quiet - is there something wrong with that? 2) if there was all kinds of noise it would blend together - its the surprise of an unanticipated noise spike that causes problems. It would be equally bad for a tennis player, a baseball player, a hockey player or what have you, including chopping a dovetail precisely. Infact it would be worse for those other sports if you took away the noise instantly at a critical moment

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I absolutely can't stand golf- or any ball sport for that matter. I stopped playing games when I left elementary school. I think paying someone $millions to play schoolyard games is a travesty, but I realize I am not the majority.

That said, I am forced to go to events that the company I work for sponsors. One such event is the PGA tournament. At the one in Bermuda I played host, so I had an all-access VIP pass. I went to the edge of the putting green as the players teed off. Sorry, the only name I remember is Angel Cabrerra, who won. These guys teed off and the ball went 300 yards and landed smack on the green and stopped dead. As a pool player (the only ball sport I play) I could see that they somehow put English on the ball. I will say, I was impressed with that.

What impressed me more, however, was the camera man who could follow the ball through the air all the way from the tee to the green. Wow. Those guys are skilled.

What impressed me most was Angel Cabrera's wife's priorities. She was in the clubhouse watching the game on live video feed with her 2yo son. The game went into sudden death and Angel was playing another guy for the win. This guy was about to win a lifetime's salary in his country of Argentina. He was about to make the winning putt and his wife was standing next to me watching on the TV when her son wandered out the door. He was safe, believe me- security guards everywhere. She looked at the TV with an anguished look, and ran out the door after the boy, missing seeing Angel win the game. Her priorities are in the right place. I will never forget that, and hold high respect for her. They seemed to me not to be swayed by money. Oh, by the way, Tiger Woods decided to no-show, which was a huge diss to Bermudians who were waiting to welcome him. Quite a contrast to the attitude of the Cabreras.

[Bill McNiel]

OK, here is my two cents.

I played both Division 1 Football and Baseball (was on a National Championship team), was on the USA National Volleyball Team and now play a lot of golf. I was and am still considered an athlete. I love the game but am not always pleased with how I play it. I can still hit 250' fungoes (baseballs) to a hula hoop in the outfield all day long and yet way too often miss hit a putt (stationary ball struck with a flat stick and a pendulum stroke). I firmly believe the game of golf was invented to prove to us how mentally weak we are as a species (I have one swing thought and can't remember it with a club in my hand). Golf is, without question, a sport.

I fully agree that the whole noise thing is Falderall. Fans should be able to yell, scream and whistle. Tiger's "rabbit ears" phobia is ridiculous. We frequently play with music streaming. Some of my best shots ever were hit during "Horseraces", that is when all the other contestants are standing around you peppering you with verbal abuse and insults.

Bottom line on the appeal of golf - I get to spend 4 1/2 hrs with very nice people on a beautiful property, "talking story", laughing and swearing, walking about 7 miles up and down hills, all while testing both my mental and physical abilities (sometimes in an altered state of mind).

BTW 1 - Professional athletes are paid so much money because of the revenue they create and golf is one of the few sports that compensates its athletes based on their most recent performance as opposed to what they did last season or what future expectations may be.

BTW 2 - It is estimated that the US Open will generate approx. $150 million in revenue for the State of Washington this year.

BTW- there are worse rules in golf (ie. one can repair a ball mark but not a spike mark on a green).

[Jim Koepke]

Gimme a break!!!! Football, soccer, golf pretty much keep going.

This makes two things come to mind.

One was the gang of eight. They were a bunch of players that would play no matter what. They would even putt or hit out of traps in torrential rain. Thanks be to the maker that I didn't caddy on rainy days. Actually only carried for these crazies once. They almost ran over the full course.

The other I think was about Lee Trevino. Him and some buddies were playing when a lightning storm rolled in. Trevino was holding up his one iron and someone warned him to get it down and put away. Trevino looked at them and said something to the effect of, "No worries, even God can't hit a one iron."

jtk

[Ole Anderson]

Constant noise isn't a problem. Some holes on certain tours actually have bleachers with cheering fans. The problem is being startled by a distractive noise just as you swing when all is quiet otherwise. Yank your shot by just five degrees and you are in the woods or water. Golf looks easy on TV. It isn't. I never intended to take up golf, it looked like a silly game to me. But then I could look across the street from my office and see my partners out on the course while I was working. Thought there might be something to it.

[Jim Matthews]

Make it a real game, with the possibility of real injury.

You just excluded most sports that don't involve contact.
I would submit that racquetball and squash are real sports.

Contact between players is prohibited.

Bowling, now there is a real man's sport.

If you can drink during play, and remain competitive - it's not a sport.

[Jim Matthews]

I think paying someone $millions to play schoolyard games is a travesty, but I realize I am not the majority.

That doesn't mean you're wrong.

[Jim Koepke]

I never intended to take up golf, it looked like a silly game to me.

My cousin tried to get me interested. My only interest was those guys in silly looking get up would pay a teenager good money to carry their clubs around and listen to them swear.

jtk

[Larry Browning]

Roger Hornsby put it best when he said "I don't play golf. When I hit a ball I want someone else to go chase it."