THE ENIGMA WITH GOLF

Golf is said to be better than sex – more “sexiting”!  Why then so

segregated as compared with other sports? Why its popularity?

Two novice women golfers are out on the course one day. The first tees up her ball, swing, and watches as it takes off on a 90-degree angle. It flies about 20 yards, hits a rock, bounces off a cart path, hits a tree, careens off the tree and finally comes to rest in the middle of the fairway.

“Hey!” exclaims her friend, giving her a miffed look. “Why didn’t you tell me you’ve been practicing?”

Is this the scenario to explain why fewer women play golf than men? But then why do so many men play such a frustrating game? Could this be a cultural phenomenon – a past legacy of the alpha males playing at exclusive clubs? Tennis, a traditional country-club sport, however, is now being played by nearly as many women as men. With the availability of the abundant public courses in Australia, a trend should come round to see the number of woman players on the increase.

I guess such drama, no exception with men, makes up for golf as a less action-packed sport. Yet in a typical PGA Championship, the spectators that watch the game amounts to millions including those millions that watch it on television. Golf features no body contact, unlike Aussie football, and no car crashes nor cheerleaders . . . yet men are hooked with golf, making it the most segregated sport by sex than any other.

Frustration or incompetence never seems to deter guys from becoming obsessed with it. Golf is truly a “magnificent obsession”. It is claimed that golf is better than sex. A below par performance is considered good in golf as maintained by David Letterman in his Late Night Show’s Top Ten List. Best of all, if your equipment gets old and rusty, you can replace it.

According to the List, as an encouragement to seniors, you can still make money. Three times a day is even possible and your partner doesn’t hire a lawyer if you do it with someone else. If you live in Perth, as in Florida, you can do it every day – with the exceptional wet days.

I guess nothing sells like sex. With such truism, hefty prize money awards for both men and women, great television promotions drawing an increasing large captive audience, such affordability with the opening of abundant public golf course, and the fact that once hooked you’ll be hooked for life, I dare say no other game can be as popular as golf.

Enjoy it!

Paul Chong

An Avid Golfer