IMO people who get into golf have petit bourgeois aspirations. Of course there are exceptions, but everyone I've met who's into golf is either PMC, petit bourgeois, or aspires to be.
Yeah when my mom signed me up for golf camp she said it was because successful men play golf and id need to do it to integrate.
Of course i sucked at it like i did every other sport so i ended up just using it as another excuse to do what i really like to do: work with younger kids. (I was assigned as a "peer mentor" by the directors but i was the only kid in that group that actually helped out with the younger kids.)
I got volunteering hours for my college aps from that peer mentor thing though so that was cool. Even if i ended up going to a sure thing i barely needed qualifications for and then flunked out, lol
I used to hate golf because it was boring and heralded the end of Saturday morning cartoons. Now I hate golf because it's a waste of good land that could be a nice park, instead maybe a dozen rich guys discussing how they're going to dump toxic waste in a river or whatever
Municipal courses in areas that can't be used for other things is not a bad idea. Golfing can be nice if you're doing it on a course that tries to use local flora and fauna and you're basically just hiking and occasionally hitting a ball.
Golf is walking around shooting the shit with your friends, being outside, drinking, and enjoying the sun. Stripped of it's social and ecological implications i get it. You're just fucking around, being outside, being with friends. You've got a skill based game with lots of doodads you can build mastery in, or you can just say fuck it and hit the ball.
I think the appeal is similar to mini-golf, just on a macro scale.
That's why disc golf is kinda a good replacement. It's a walk outside with friends, but it can be in smaller spaces, doesn't need reserved space, and can even be in places where it's lightly wooded.
I agree but because throwing a frisbee is the only athletic thing ive ever been ok at. I sucked at Ultimate significantly less than other sports. Well actually now that im remembering i had a thing when i tried baseball that i was always pretty accurate with a bat, but couldnt run fast enough to get oh base. Or do literally anything on defense.
But with golf, while i can putt ok but i cant drive the ball literally at all.
I think you've got the right idea. A lot of the people I know that are into golf just like hanging out outside with friends. Sure a few of them are well off, but I think the appeal as you age and have kids has more to do with being the 'third place'.
Public courses in places where you're not fucking the water cycle by transporting water from far away are pretty cool.
Country club culture and having pristine grass in deserts suck, if hedge fund managers want to play a sport where they shut out the poors then they should stick to squash at expensive fitness clubs.
Golf is evil. It's a climate-destroying bourgeois sport for porkies to talk about their unspeakable crimes far away from microphones while acting abusively towards caddies and servers.
Think of the millions of gallons of water used to keep this grass in Las Vegas green. All that water wasted and not a single ounce of edible vegetation comes from it.
all so that can get tipsy while trading stonks on their phone.
My brother sold both his motorcycles in order to afford to buy one of those golf simulators they have at the big sporting good places. He can go in his garage and hammer away into a screen. It also came with a computer program that allows you to download every course on the PGA tour. Him and his buddies play every weekend.
It's a way to casually compete with the fellas and and drink before noon on a Saturday without having to tell your wife/gf you are going to the bar at 9AM. My cousins who are union members golf, just at public courses instead of country clubs.
Why don't people who come from money like cool shit like BJJ or taking edibles and hiking? I should be allowed to do axe throwing with the heir to Tyson chicken and convince them to loan me a communism (when I'm in power I won't pay them back)
I do not. I hate golf and am very much on the outside of the c-suite folks who just play golf all day, but that's why a ton of people start learning golf like OP asked
I've never been to a big golf course but my dad would take me to this small pitch and put which was a lot of fun when the weather is nice.
It was a small place as well generally just normal meadow like grass and trees with some small patches of green and holes to hit the ball into. Nothing like the grandiose insults to nature like the rich people have.
Was £5 a go round and there were no golf carts cos it was all walkable like corner to corner in a minute or so. Also so many abandoned golf balls we grew quite the collection. Lose one in a bush and come back with 10.
i'd love to have a day with the fellas, participating in low stakes competition, light exercise, talkin shit, gettin fresh air, having some drinks. waiting in line, paying a bunch of money to walk on grass, being bad at hitting a ball with a stick, wearing dockers and polos, being surrounded by nerds. i'd like the first sentence without the second sentence
Its kinda why some people prefer top golf over regular golf. Its a much more casual setting of people trying to have fun and just hitting the ball and letting the automated system score you.
Eh if there's a computerized system how do I shave my 6 down to a 5 and kick my ball onto the fairway when nobody is looking? Can science explain that?
I am open to the idea of communally owned natural links courses, as their impact doesn’t seem to be horrid - and they’d be rare:
Sir Walter Simpson, a 19th century Scottish philosopher who wrote the book “The Art of Golf” defines links as, “The grounds on which golf is played are called links, being the barren sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank bent grass and gorse. Links are too barren for cultivation: but sheep, rabbits, geese and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them.”
Aside from that, I want to build communally owned Laser Tag on top of all existing golf courses
This picture looked so insane I thought it might be AI-generated; but no, this abomination is called the Mena House Oberoi Golf Club and it's very real sadly.
I enjoy golf, play maybe once a year on public courses. I would never call it a sport and would gladly trade all golf courses for public land or housing. But it is a treat I will occasionally indulge in.
I dislike golf, but I love driving ranges. Top Golf, shitty small ones with the dude in the fur suit, the one in the alley...somedays you need to blow off steam and hit some balls.
Fuck Golf as a sport. Its boring as fuck. Too much outdoor time hitting balls and getting stuck in the sand trap. Fucking hell.